Being a woman means changing yourself for others. You must sit up, walk straight, eat healthy. You have to excel in school, hold a job, keep the house clean, and have a boyfriend. You need to be social, but not too loud. If you talk too much, you're seeking attention. You must keep your mouth shut, but never too much that you're introverted.
Don't ever get frustrated, because then people will blame your period. It's just that time of the month - the time when you're completely irrational and incapable of making any sound decisions, so they will be made for you. As a woman, you can't expect the same treatment as males because they're just the better sex! Smarter, stronger, wittier, tougher, faster, better, better, better.
You must wear pink dresses and skirts and jewelry. You must wear makeup, but not too much or else you're just a cake face. Don't even think about weighing too much! You must be skinny, but don't even think about being too skinny, because then everyone will believe that you don't eat.
You can't be too tall or too short. Don't expect to have short or colored hair. Boys don't like it if you look that way! You better do well in school, but don't even think for a second you can study to become an engineer, or a doctor, or a miner - those are men's jobs. Why? Because men are, well, better.
Always speak against feminism. Those women are whiny. You can't acknowledge their delusions. Boy's won't ever date you if you cuss, or talk about inequality. Women are too hormonal to understand anything clearly. Ignore the news, the internet, the television. World issues don't concern you when you're tending to your family. Your husband will make the money and you will sit and watch comfortably. Buy a minivan and trek the kids to practice. Ballet for the girl and football for the boy. Don't let your daughter play football, she's too fragile, too weak, too pretty. Don't let your boy do ballet, he's too tough, too talented, too manly.
Be a housewife. Be a trophy wife. Be everything the world demands you to be. Stand still and make yourself fit all the standards. Be perfect so they can mold you into a box, likable and flawless so you can be sold as the next new Barbie.
Everything I have told you is what we are instructed to follow - the unwritten rules of womanhood. But if you are a woman, and you're reading this, I want you to do one thing.
Reject all of it.
Ignore what the world tells you to be. Become who you want to be. Gender roles do not exist when you're bound to break them. Do not listen to a word they say: you are worthy, important, capable, and willing. And you have been given the gift of life. Go do what you want with it. Be all you can be and more. Don't shy away from the leadership role at work, or speaking out against an injustice, or majoring in biochemistry.
Being a woman means being told to sit down, but standing up. It means dressing as you please, and learning as you desire, and behaving as you wish. We have overcome so much, and yet there is so much more to work towards. Unleash your greatest talents. We need you in your best form, not in your repressed one.
Being a woman means knowing there are no binds strong enough to hold you back from changing the world.
