Feminist

A woman is replacing the cap on her tire valve. Standing beside her, leaning against the car and looking at a phone, is a man. What is your first thought here?
I wouldn't have thought about it at all, except that I saw this picture as a meme on Facebook. It said, "God, please protect my daughter from 'men' like him."
That tingled the ol' feminist spidey-sense.
What, pray tell, does she need to be protected from? Tires? Valves? Air? Listen, it's 2016. Women have been driving for 100 years now. It's not only likely, but probable, that some of us know how to operate and maintain our vehicles. And if my vehicle is the one that needs basic maintenance, please kindly step aside so I can take care of it. My car does not become your business simply because you have different reproductive organs.
We don't know the story behind the photo. What I see is that the woman looks calm and comfortable. The man is outside the car, not shut up in it, and though his mouth is closed in the photo, he appears to be keeping her company. A Facebook friend suggested he was searching for the correct tire pressure for her car, and received the response, "no, he's lazy." Why on Earth is that the immediate assumption here?
One more fact from the photo: the people are Black.
So I ask again, why is "he's lazy" the assumption?
When I commented that there is no reason a task which a woman is capable of doing should be done by a man, simply because of his gender, I was told to "relax, it's just a Facebook post."
Remind me to relax again when these blatantly sexist, and (probably) subconsciously racist, assumptions aren't being made.

American

The 2016 election was completely disheartening. It demonstrates that a message of intolerance resonated so well with 60 million of my countrymen that they raised the blustering spokesperson of that mentality to the highest office our nation offers. It is hard to comprehend how far backwards these voters are willing to set America's progression. I was shocked and upset. The next morning, it occurred to me that people only change when they're uncomfortable.

Sixty million people were so uncomfortable, they demanded a complete turnaround of leadership. For perspective's sake, keep in mind that 60 million Americans represent roughly 24% of the voting population. The election by this vocal minority of such an overwhelmingly insular person appears, to me, to be the dramatic final gasps of a dying ideal; one which makes the majority of Americans uncomfortable. So let's get uncomfortable. Let's keep backing intolerance into a corner by advocating for civil rights. Let's allow this event to strengthen our resolve to continue building the environment we want our children to live in. We can let our discomfort embolden us to be kind the way the result has emboldened those who wish ill on people who differ from them. We don't have to - and absolutely shouldn't - allow it to set us back.