I happened upon a video by one of my favorite YouTubers earlier this morning. I’ll leave it here for you to watch as well. It’ll give you some background info at least, if you’re unfamiliar with the creator Hannah Pearl Davis of JustPearlyThings.
Pearl is a vocal advocate against women’s rights, which is ironic because she is, in fact, a woman herself. Not content to, ya know, have voting privileges and her own credit card (the latter of which wasn’t possible until my own mother was an adult), she speaks about how women generally suck in comparison to men. Her sources for this are seemingly rectally sourced — “But men built modern society!” Never mind that we weren’t allowed to contribute for much of human history. I guarantee had we been viewed as equals, we would have been just as prolific. But when you’re relegated to a life of wife and mother and shooed away from public life, you’re not exactly going to be building pyramids or discovering electricity. I’m just saying if we’d had equal rights like, several hundred years ago, life would probably look a little closer to the Barbie movie.
I’m not mad at Pearl for believing what she does, as problematic as her beliefs are. Rather, I feel a deep sorrow for her. How sad must it be to believe yourself inferior simply because of the way you were made! As shown in the video, she’s admitted herself that she has low self-esteem, which no doubt contributed to her falling down the alt-right rabbit hole that’s sucked in way too many young people like her.
So my irrational womanly feelings led me to pen an open letter to her. I highly doubt she’ll read this, as she’s a creator with millions of followers and I am simply some asshole with a blog, but perhaps some girl who’s falling down the same rabbit hole will. I pray my words convince her that she’s worth more than this.
Pearl,
Your name has a meaning — you are beautiful and precious and nothing can take that away from you. I hate what this patriarchal, red pill bullshit has done to you. I’ve seen some of your older videos — the light in your eyes has gone. But it’s not too late to reclaim it.
Your gender has nothing to do with your worth. You are a woman, and that’s okay! We’ve fought like hell to get to where we are today, and that’s something to be proud of. You have a voice because your mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers decided that they’d had enough of the very life you claim to want to go back to. Today, we have the choice to be scientists, businesswomen, politicians, or even just a wife and mother, which there’s absolutely nothing wrong with! My mom was a wife and mother, and that’s all she wanted to be. But she and my dad raised me and my sister to have a choice, and I cherish the fact that they gave us that choice.
You have a choice, too. You can live quietly as a wife and mother, or you can pursue a different dream, whether that’s in business or academia or politics or something else entirely. A lot of women manage to do both, which is admirable as heck! But you have that choice, and it’s a shame you want to take that choice away from other women. Our freedom was hard-earned, and you’re still receiving benefits from it. You weren’t pawned off like chattel to be forcibly married to some rando, were you? That’s an extreme example, but it shows how far we’ve come as a society. We need feminism because without it, that’s how we’d still be living. We’d be little more than the property of our fathers or husbands.
I write this because I know you’re capable of so much more. You’re a Christian too, right? Remember the verse that says there’s no male or female in Christ (Galatians 3:28)? That means our earthly gender divisions are moot — we’re all equal in the eyes of God. What’s more is that you’re beloved by God! He loves and provides for the lowly sparrow, and you’re worth much, much more than that to Him! You’re the daughter of a King, so straighten that crown and get out of this red pill nonsense.
You. Are. Worth. More.
Love,
Jessa
JESSA JOYCE 