But having hope out of the blue with no evidence that you should or some plan for why that's reasonable is just rose-colored glasses that have the effect of minimizing the fears and concerns of those who are affected (in a way that you are not directly affected), as well as not being alert to dynamics that could well turn the tide in the wrong direction.

I linked you studies done in 2024 about gender in media, some of which indicated things actually being worse than in prior years. I don't vaguely imagine that I can have any meaningful impact on the lives of women in Muslim nations, but they are a good example of why simply "hoping for the best" is a dangerous thing to do.

Have you ever seen pictures of women in Iran or Syria in the 1970s? They dressed in ways that were very similar to Western women at that time - maybe not quite as short a skirts, but heels, skirts well above the knee, regular blouses and tops, uncovered heads, etc. Burkhas are not part of history in those countries, they are not the "national dress." They are what happens when a relatively small number of retrograde religious zealots take power - something that is already moving in the same direction in many Western democracies. It's not a slam dunk that progress will just naturally happen in the face of that. To quote yourself, what you're doing is just "a guess" - one that encourages feeling safe and secure because it will "probably" be alright, so we don't have to worry - we can just be optimistic. 🙄

Edit: In addition, violence against women has increased in recent years — around the world, but also in this country. It’s not a given that time will improve things for women, or other marginalized people, particularly when young men and young white men especially are moving to the right. In the UK, 50% of young men think “feminism has gone too far” even though the UK is pretty far down on the gender equality scale of Western democracies. It’s not enough to wait for the “dinosaurs” to die off. We have to confront the beliefs of the younger generation as well.

You aren’t protecting that little girl in your profile image by “being optimistic” in the face of all sorts of reasons to be very, very concerned.