Fresh Meat

     A shared post showed up on my Facebook page the other day. There was some text over a collage of pictures. I read the text and then read it again. I couldn't believe what I was reading. I went from calm and happy to thermonuclear upset in about 2 seconds.

    It was an ad for a bar. The first line of text read, "We have fresh meat for you!" It then went on to announce a newly hired employee. At the bottom of the ad were pictures of women, I assume employees of this establishment. One of them was the new hire.

   What caused me to be so angry was the fact that this ad called one of its female employees "fresh meat" I was absolutely beside myself. I couldn't believe that a business establishment would do something like this. Fresh meat is what you put in your hamburgers. Those two words should never be used to describe an employee of any gender.

  I find it difficult to understand why, in the wake of the Me Too movement, this could happen. 

  In my opinion, one of the reasons why women are sexually harassed (I'm not going to speak about the subject of assault.) is because women are not seen as human. If you look up dehumanzing women on Google you'll see a lot of things to look at. There is one website that shows various ads and pictures of women with a discussion of why they are dehumanizing.

  It's pretty common in language too. Phrases like "kept woman", "trophy wife" "starter wife" and "mail order bride" don't portray women as human beings. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free. Make an honest woman of her. Put a ring on it. Need I go on?

    When you hear things like this on a regular basis it's not only hard for a man to think of a woman as a human being. It's hard for women to think of themselves as humans and deserving of decent treatment and basic rights.

   She's not fresh meat. She's somebody's daughter, sister, possibly mother or wife. She's your new bartender, new waitress or new hostess. She's not an inanimate object on a plate. She's someone that will be expected to interact with your customers and provide them with a service.

  She's a person who will take the salary she earns and pay her rent, buy food and take care of her family if she has one.

   In other words, she's a human being, just like you. Not fresh meat.