Dear Women and Girls…you are simply phenomenal. A few years ago I went through this phase where I was absolutely fascinated with what it means to be a woman, and a girl.
It’s not just the makeup, the dating, and the “girl” stuff, it was everything and anything that had anything to do with me being a woman.
I was fascinated because I felt so utterly connected to this part of the world that only so many of us get to experience. This amazing ball of light energy that told me that being born a girl, meant something special to the world.
There are so many girls and women that are born with bodies that society says are not womanly enough, and that breaks my heart.
Not because I dislike the bodies they are born in, but because the world makes these girls, and these women, feel as if they should be ashamed of their bodies, because they are built “boyish.”
Labels that men created in order to control and destroy us from the inside out.
The world – the society that we live in tells us in a million tiny ways that we are not enough, even as they make videos about our brilliance and tell us that we can do anything.
“You can do anything you want, but not that way.”
You can be anyone, but not like that, you can wear whatever you want, but if you do, don’t complain if you get raped or assaulted because you should have chosen to wear something else.
Everything is your fault, even when you aren’t even in the room to be at fault. The very fact that you exist means that you are going to automatically be asked to lead, even as you’re also being asked not to lead in such a way that people notice you are the one in charge.
Being a girl is the most frustrating thing in the world, and you know what? It’s a thankless fucking job. No matter who you are or what you accomplish, you will be judged by a white cis male, because white cis males are all over this planet, telling us that we can only have what we want and need when it benefits them.
It’s incredibly frustrating being a girl, even when you do find a white cis male who appears that he may make a good ally, friend, or teacher, they inevitably disappoint you by choosing to uphold the patriarchy in favor of their own survival.
Are you done yet? Not even close.
Even when and if you do accomplish your goals, people will tell you that you slept your way to the top and that the only thing you really have to offer this planet, is in between your legs. And if what is in between your legs doesn’t match up with who society thinks you are supposed to be?
As a woman, you are treated like a leaper, abused, and raped, and murdered, at a higher rate then anyone else on this planet.
A few people will jump up in your defense, they’ll plant a tree in your name like Maple Batalia, and they’ll drag your family out every few years to remind the world that you existed, but eventually they will forget and move on.
You’ll pray to a male God, because the world tells you that of course God is a male, because only men can create. When in reality, as you will learn, it takes a second to create a third, and so of course you’ll begin to understand that there is a Goddess. Because if there can be a God, why couldn’t there be a Goddess?
Every Goddess that ever existed has sat back and watched as their hard work has been destroyed by the voice of men, like the woman who invented the wheel – I wish I knew her name.
Women are some of the smartest, most underrepresented, under-protected, under-respected creatures on this planet. There are parts in this world were animals and plant life faces more consideration then we do, but no you are not done, because you know that it’s not supposed to be this way.
There are dangers in this world that no other human you will ever meet, will have to face. Every journey is different, some girls grow up in the lap of luxury and still they live in little more than a prettified prison, like Princess Latifah of Dubai.
You will in your capacity as a woman try to save those that you can from the dangers of this world, and you will be imprisoned for it like Neringa Venckienė, who tried to save her niece from the nieces’ mother, who sold the child into sex slavery.
But here’s the thing that makes you the most amazing. No matter how hard the fight, no matter how difficult or impossible the battle, you will never give up.
Even when your white cis mentors, teachers, allies, and friends, show you their terrible true selves, you will take what they taught you and you will use it against a world that is trying to destroy everything about you, so the next woman or girl has it easier.
You will never give up, because the idea of being a failure doesn’t occur to you. It is actually so far from your mind, that failure is not a word that you understand. Failure by anyone else’s standards, is certainly none of your business, and not something that you are willing to focus on, and that confuses the crap out of those around you.
You confuse and confound people because you choose to be everything but what they say you should be, and it challenges their ideas of what is normal and appropriate.
Those around you fight change with everything that they have, but you accept confusion, conflict, and chaos with open arms, because you want an interesting life, so that you can be a writer, a dancer, a singer, an actress. You want to be a historian, a teacher, a doctor, a nurse, a person that tells stories that help shape the world in a million different ways.
Like the Greek soldiers and warriors of old, you want to be a hero, and leave a legacy, and you do it effortlessly in pinstripe stockings, and motherfucking ice pick heels.
You are a girl, a woman, an androgynous being who comes from the heart of the flame of the center of the universe, and the world is absolutely terrified of you, because if you embrace your full power, you might unleash holy unmitigated hell upon this earth.
And everything in this entire universe knows it.
Happy Women’s History Month, thank you for existing long enough to make a dent in this world. Thank you for breathing life into this world. Your heart and soul is embedded into the fabric of this universe, and I am so proud to stand beside you.
Surrounded by your glorious light, you are phenomenal, and I am glad to be one of you.
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall
Loud Mouth Brown Girl 