Here are the things that I did not learn growing up. These are not the bedtime stories I was told as a little girl. I think that we all have fallen victim to the issues so deeply baked in our society, that we have forgotten how to react to injustice when we see it.
As a woman, you do not have any obligations to owe anything back to the society that has taken from you. From a society that has sustained itself and its growth by breaking you down. Here are the things that you are not obligated to have, do, or be as a woman.
You are allowed to be more than three-dimensional; you are meant to be that way. You are meant to add to the dichotomy of the world –you do not subtract from her. Your presence is not a burden, and your rejections are not meant to be taken as punchlines to jokes left untold by apologies and excuses.
Ladies, your obligations as a woman are not defined by what is between your legs. Your moral compass does not pass in the direction that a man follows you. It is not laced in what you wear, or where you’ve been. You are not a game to be played, nor a riddle to be guessed. And you are under no obligation to follow the rules of a game that you didn’t ask to play.
You are a word rich with power –not suffering. Your obligations are not the foundation of your suffering. You are not the object of suffering.
You are not meant to be defined by your obligations to the world you may have had the opportunity to build with your own hands; you are not defined by your obligations to a world built for you by other hands.
It’s not delusional to want to be taken seriously. It’s not bizarre to want to be seen individually. Your complaints are warranted and your grievances should be heard. If you need to sign on passionate independence from your societal constraints then you’re allowed to do so.
You are allowed to scream, and yell, and laugh, and sigh, and weep, and sing. You do not have to send an apology to the perceptions of yourself by those around you.
You are you.
Unapologetically, and sincerely, you are yours. And you are under no obligation to be anything otherwise.