The Starting Point of R-E-S-P-E-C-T

So, a day or two after the Women’s Marches that occurred on 1/21, I saw many people posting pictures on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter from the event.  There were plenty of snarky comments from Trump supporters.  But what I found real tiring was the attempts by said supporters to take down women as hypocrites.  Models seemed especially obvious targets to them.

One internet model had hundreds upon hundreds of hateful comments for simply posting a picture from the day.  Many carried the same message:

How dare you, a woman who posts pictures of yourself in bikinis and lingerie, pretend to be a feminist!”

It was implicit that such a profession renders you unworthy of respect or the expectations of being treated decently.

The popular saying is “Respect is earned, not given.”

But I wholeheartedly disagree.

Your default starting point with anyone should be “respect”.  Respect is something given until it is lost with good reason.  And if your point of losing respect for someone is how they dress (on or off the internet) then your line is faulty.

People who treat others badly.  People who ignore hurting people.  People who are bigoted.  These are terrific reasons to lose respect for someone.  But people seem far more capable of ignoring those clear flaws than they do for far minor things.

So again, you start at “Respect” and people either keep it or lose it.  If your starting point is “No respect, it must be earned”?  You are not a decent person.