Thank you all for your comments.
Kemetstry…It took me a while to respond because I have been very busy. This past week I have had a Physics test, an Integral Calculus test, a U.S. Government test, an Advanced French test, and a six page paper to write for British Literature, not to mention four of my top choice college applications were due. So, excuse me for appearing as though I was not planning to respond. I am not embarrassed at all.
In fact, I agree with you in that men and women are not the same, and should not be considered as equals.
My brother wants to “protect” me, which I understand and appreciate. He does not want guys to look at me and think of me as disrespectfully as some guys do regard girls. Although I do not believe in the pessimistic theory that “All guys are dogs,” I do believe that anyone and everyone, male and female, will treat you how you allow them to treat you. I cannot help that some guy may look at me and think of me as a sex object or that thereof. I even cannot help whether or not he has the audacity to approach me with such vulgarity. That’s life, neither my brother, nor I can fix that. However, how the situation varies is in how I respond.
I carry myself in a respectable manner. I do not dress suggestively, or act suggestively. I always try to give respect, and I command respect. I am not a stupid girl, and I have my priorities together. I am a very mature young lady, and my mother and brother know this. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty I know, but even more I don’t know, which I will hopefully learn as I mature. My objection dealing with my brother is that, though I often hear his high opinion of me, it seems as if he forgets who I am when dealing with issues where I am out of his sight. I feel as if he sees me as just his “little sister.” He often makes comments implying that I have “book sense” but no “common sense.” Which I have proven wrong numerous times. I am 17 years old, a senior in high school, and I have never been on a date. That does not bother me much at all because that is not a priority to me. However, I have lived a sheltered life, which I do not rebel against, but sometimes I feel that it gets to be much. My mother considers my brother’s opinion, which is always negative, which limits my privileges that much more. Every single male friend that I have even mentioned to my brother, he refused to consider them as possible nice people, simply because they have male genitalia. He does not trust me to pick my own friends, male friends in particular. (By the way, my mother totally trusts me to make my decisions because she knows that I make mature, well thought through choices.) He always has such brute criticism, yet he cannot find one flaw in my “friend-finding” process. (By the way, all of my friends are intelligent, focused, considerate, respectful, and respectable young men and women…my mother can attest to that.) I am sure he has sound advice that he could give me, so that I may see the male opinion, however, honestly, my brother’s irrational, close-minded views, only makes me feel apprehensive to talking to him about such topics.
It is not so much of whether males and females should get the same privileges, but more about the individual and their maturity level. I do not get to do the things that my brother did when he was my age, and I do not try to. I get practically whatever I want because I do not have unreasonable requests. I am just tired of fighting him for treating me as if I am five and stupid.
~Smartgurl