Maybe this topic had more impact on me than I was aware of? A daughter of my friends is becoming a case study for me, since I'm seeing flashes of her development every few months, from almost the beginning. And she reminds me of me. And now she's reached the age when I've noticed her father started to criticize anything that's feminine about her. One thing is that her father may have similar issues to my father (since THIS IS NOT okay), but when I looked at her face today when he was complaining about how clumsy she is, I realised: this pain is real. It means that when I was her age and heard similar things I wasn't hurting because I was oversensitive, and I was fully able to understand such things at such age. Before she wouldn't react to such messages, now, at the age of 4, she gets hurt. Hurt deeply. It's heartbreaking.

I realised also another thing. Since I've moved abroad and have managed to get some of the sexist-related damage undone, I have never confronted the people in my place of origin about how they speak about women. I started thinking "okay they may be implying so and so, but everyone knows it's a joke, just don't take it seriously". And only now, when I saw this little kid, who certainly doesn't think it's a joke, and does take it seriously, I realised: this is where it all starts. It's real.