Let me live in a world that allows a girl to walk down the street in a pretty sun dress while spitting out her sunflower seeds like a college baseball player without being judged. Let me live in a world that sees a girl watching football and drinking a cold beer without the assumption that she's trying to impress a man or that her boyfriend has trained her well. Let me live in a world that doesn't say that Nursing is a major only for girls because they're not competent enough to be doctors.
I am judged for being female. Being female is not a privilege by society’s standards. We all know it because that's what society taught us from the moment we took our first breath. I am expected to be feminine, pretty, smart but not too smart to be smarter than a man, sensitive, emotional, difficult to date and high maintenance, and submissive and inferior to men.
But let's be serious here. I don't know the first thing about makeup. I have a sharp tongue, and I don't watch my words. I won’t back down to anyone, including a man. I don’t always dress like a delicate little flower. I don't fit the mold of what a female is supposed to be in this society.
Society may see being a man as a gender privilege, but let me tell you something. They don't have the privilege of bearing a child.They don't have the privilege of being graceful and poised. Most importantly, society doesn't see the beauty in them the way women are seen. We are beautiful beings.
Yea, women can’t, or at least shouldn’t, ever get hit by a man because that is what all little boys are taught… Never hit a girl. But, I’ll be honest with you. Anytime a man has said, “I’d hit you, but you’re a girl”, I’ve always threatened them to hit me. Just because I’m a girl doesn’t mean I’m not equal. Don’t allow that to be a justification to not hit me. Don’t hit me because it won’t solve the problem. (For the record, I’ve never gotten hit after saying that, and I know I would be absolutely terrified to get hit. But my point was made.)
Women, don’t let the biological makeup of your body and the lack of a body part in between your legs tell you what you can and can't do. Every girl secretly knows damn well that this is a man's world, and we are living in it. Men, see the beauty in women, but treat us equally… or at least be conscious of it. And most importantly to all women, don't allow being a female to be an unprivileged in the genetic makeup of our cultural identity.
So women, touch your shaved legs and feel beautiful. Look at yourself in the mirror and see the glow of your smile. Wear a pretty sun dress and be cliche and twirl around with the sun shining on your face in a field of flowers. Run your fingers through your hair, touch your hips, and feel beautiful. Always feel beautiful. No matter what anyone says.
Writer’s Note: This isn't a bash towards men. This is an outbreak of emotion towards the construction of society and the natural inequality of our biological differences.
