I am a woman, and I am worthy. I am worthy of love and respect. I am worthy of your time and of your understanding. I am worthy of giving myself away rather than you taking. I am worthy of choosing who I want to be and how I want to be perceived.
Everywhere in the world today, we are told we are not worthy. Movies tell us that we are only beautiful if we look a certain way and that we must correlate sex to self-worth. Media tells us what we need to look like to be considered beautiful and that if we don’t fit the mold, we have no worth. If we are a feminist, we are too extreme. If we aren’t a feminist, we are asking for it to continue. If I bare children, I’m throwing away my life but if I don’t, I’m throwing away my purpose. If I stop wearing a bra, I am sexualizing myself. If I wear a bra I’m trying too hard. If I sleep with you I’m a slut, but if I don’t then I’m a prude.
One of our presidential candidates tells us that if we are pregnant we are inconvenient. He has said that our minds don’t matter as long as we have beautiful bodies. He boasts about sexual assault and grabbing us in places that we are were never meant to be grabbed without consent and kissing us whether we want to be kissed or not.
The people are listening, and too many are defending him. There are people, in this Nation, right now who are advertising #Repealthe19th. They are demanding for our right to vote, the right that was worked so hard for to be taken away from us. I wish I could say with certainty that such a concept could never gain ground. But here we are, continuing to have the conversation about why we deserve the right to be as equal a citizen as our male counterparts.
We are your mothers, your sisters, and your daughters. We are all worthy of your respect, no matter what we look like. We are more than beautiful faces and breasts and butts. We are minds and souls and spirits. We are all different. We all want different things and we all think a different way.
Judge me by my intellect. Start a conversation with me about politics or about popular culture. Don’t whistle at me when I walk down the street. Don’t assume that because I am beautiful I can’t be smart or because I’m smart I can’t be beautiful. Don’t think that I will let you walk on me. Don’t think that I will back down on what I believe just because I am a woman.
I am worthy. I am worthy of having a voice. I am worthy of choosing my own fate and making my own decisions. I am worthy of finding love for who I am and not what I am. I am worthy of loving myself and finding strength amongst the people that love me.
I am a woman, and I am worthy.
