Just because it never happened to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen and that millions of other women don’t find it incredibly disempowering. You might as well ask a black person why they don’t just shrug off everyday racism. Many of them do, but that doesn’t mean that they should have to as the only option available to them. We can’t change things that we don’t identify as even being a problem, particularly when it involves large societal dynamics, because they are what creates the world that we live in.

Most of what people do is subconscious, so you are really never going to get them to stop if you don’t make it conscious for them. Some will never change, don’t care, think they have the right or what have you, but some people will at least try to behave differently when they become more aware. I used to sometimes use the word “gypped” without meaning to be racist or unkind, but now I don’t because it’s come to my awareness that this is a slur.