One of my biggest pet peeves as a woman is when people (almost always men, though,) are like, “Imagine if she were your mother/sister/daughter,” in response to something heinous happening to a stranger. Why do you need to frame a woman as someone you know in order to feel appalled at what happened to them? If they weren’t your daughter would you not care? They are human, that is all that matters.
And notice how we rarely, if ever, frame things like, “Imagine if he were your dad/brother/son”.
@ana I was not raised in a closely knit family so this analogy didn't make much sense when I was young. But in life I observed that a lot of people are members of a closely knit family and in Latin America I experienced being an adopted member of such a family. It's actually pretty neat. It feels wonderful to belong. It triggers our tribal instinct.
Today I work with such a family here in West Virginia. These people see family as separate and apart from everyone that's not family. Things that happen to a family member are taken personally by everyone. They will protect and fight for each other. If you're not a member of that family, you're forever treated as a stranger and they don't care about you.
I think the analogy is intended to break through that barrier in people who have that division. What if that person were a family member? That makes a huge difference to some people.
@shuttersparks @ana In addition I ask that of myself when I see bullying by male people.
What if that was my son? How can I avoid my son becoming like that?
what if that old man was your dad ? How do you tell him that his comment was inappropriate?