What Happened to Humanity?
Has there ever been a time in human history when men and women have been this divided? I feel like the older I’ve gotten, the worse it’s become. At first, it felt new to me. I came from a loving family. My father passed away when I was younger, but I still felt the love of a father through my grandma. I also had uncles and cousins who were always around and made me feel seen in the way a father sees his daughter. So, the love was always there. I never missed it — not even into my early adulthood.
It wasn’t until the middle of my 20s that I started to notice how far men and women had been pushed away from each other. That shift began when my mom got divorced. Her husband cheated on her. That’s when I started questioning everything I believed about men and women. And to be honest, I still don’t know how I feel about men.
Looking back, that was just the beginning. In the years after, I dated men — and it only seemed like I was being objectified more and more. Is that what dating has become? Is this the result of the overconsumption of porn and the normalization of sex as a marketing tool? I can’t say for sure, but it feels like it.
And I say that because I eventually became a victim of rape. Even when I said no, the man reduced me to a sexual object. Since then… it’s just been me, my dog, and my thoughts.
I have so many questions about how I got here. How did society get here? This happens to millions of women every day — and what’s actually being done about it? How are we being protected? With the TEA app? I understand the idea behind it, but at some point, there has to be an intersection between innovation and accountability.
But whose responsibility is it? I genuinely don’t know. To some extent, men only treat you the way you allow them to, right? So… have women as a whole contributed to this — to the idea that this kind of behavior is okay? Or have men evolved in their thinking, and this is just the result?
It’s hard to wrap my head around how far we’ve fallen as a society — to the point where men no longer protect women. Why are there so few men willing to stand up for women? When did this shift happen? When did women stop being worth protecting?
As always, I have more questions than answers. But the root of it all seems to come back to one word: why.
Why has society gotten worse than when I was a kid? I can’t bring myself to believe it was always this bad. Yes, there’s been slavery, genocide, and other atrocities. But somehow, it feels like we’ve grown colder, more disconnected. Is Earth really just a planet filled with people obsessed with power and control? It can’t be. My mind won’t allow me to go down that road.
Because even after everything — I still have hope.
I believe that someday, people will become better. I know there are many forces holding humanity back, but I also believe in the one thing that still connects us all — our humanity. And it’s deeper than just being human. It’s the reason we’re all here. None of us is better than the other.
I have hope that more people will realize this — and rise to the occasion. Because if not, we’ll destroy ourselves.
But until then, I’ll keep holding onto that hope.
By: Bria
