With all the controversy surrounding equal rights still today, women might be inclined to believe that we have come a long way, which in some areas, we might have. However, in many other circumstances, in my opinion, this country is going backwards by leaps and bounds and women are getting the shortend of the stick.

If you were alive in America in 1968 (my birth year) or any time after that, you might remember the advertising slogan for Virginia Slims, a brand of cigarettes, which stated “You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby.”

Ironically, Pat Martin, who never smoked a day in his life, was the man who coined the advertising slogan with a woman dressed up in 1960s-print pantsuit with a cigarette in her hand to capture the culture of the women’s liberation movement during that era.

However, did a man really catch the real identity of a woman? I don’t believe so. In fact, I find it slightly sexist, Baby! Though it may have gone on to become “one of the best-known slogans in advertising history” I do believe women were again “given the short-end of the stick” and “put in their place.”

Though the last televised cigarette ad ran during The Johnny Carson Show on January 1, 1971, when I would’ve just turned three years old, the catchphrase went on to become part of our popular culture that you might even hear today.

But have we really come a long way, Ladies, not “Baby” like a child that needs protection or is a man’s “pet.” Because I believe women know who they are and what they want and by all means deserve to be treated as equals without pet names added.

Now with the equal rights movement came the Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 which states:

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

So essentially this means Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive any federal funding which includes the vast majority of schools today.

So recently when an individual who was born as a man and had previously identified himself as a man in men’s sports decided to identify himself as a woman and compete in women’s sports, we were supposed to believe that was equality?

Let me explain this from a woman’s perspective. A woman is a unique creation that cannot be redefined by any man. Think about what a woman generally does if she decides to marry and have children.

First, she changes her name to his last name, changing her legal identity. She then goes on to leave her family, change her address to his and if they decide to have children, lets her body change due to pregnancy. Finally she labors for hours to bring their child into the world, which often leaves scars and stretch marks on her body and again the child generally takes his name not hers.

Until the day she dies, everything this woman does revolves around this man and their child. She cooks, cleans and works diligently to maintain all the family relationships, even at the cost of her own beauty, health, hobbies or dreams. Why? Because she truly was made to be a woman and she earned that right to be called one. Which I think may need to be pronounced “woe-man” because she is the wow factor. She brings forth life and in the process loses her own identity yet again to be called “Mom.”

So no, Mr. Martin, “we haven’t come a long way.” In fact, we’ve gone backwards, especially if others rule that a man has the right to be called a woman or compete against women. Sadly, this man has not just chosen to identify himself as a woman but he has chosen to take away the very identity of a woman and that sir is not equality.