I’m a young girl. I was born in California and moved to New York after a few years. My whole life, I’ve lived in huge, big-city liberal bastions. I was raised by strong, progressive, Korean parents, who have taught me that a woman can accomplish anything. So, maybe you can guess what my parents have always told me about speaking up. That’s right! “Why don’t you shut the hell up and let someone else speak for a second?” Are you surprised? It’s honestly not that shocking. Even the most open-minded of us hold inherent biases that have been rammed into us from a young age. Girls are commonly considered to be irritating whenever they speak their minds. If they complain about discrimination, they’re considered SJWs and snowflakes. There is no shortage of people who will see a smooth-talking woman and be compelled to say some variation of: “I’m not sexist …show more content…
Thus, many of us may feel shocked and distressed when we first experience sexism in a debate environment. Sexism in debate may come in the form of an inappropriate gesture from a male opponent, or a judge’s comment on how shrill your voice was. All of these things serve to delegitimize and degrade female speakers such that they are no longer measured on their skill, but on their ability to pander to men. As we continue to be exposed to anti-women rhetoric, we may begin to internalize this sexism and see ourselves as being less-than. And this is the point when such prejudices can do serious damage. The preconceived notions of one misogynistic judge don’t matter in the long run, as long as there continue to be female debaters to consistently prove the merit and worth of women as speakers. When the societal fear of strong women burrows so deep that even we as female debaters start to doubt our ability, that is the moment when the patriarchy