How much of who you are is because you are who you want to be, vs how much of yourself is who you are because of conditioning and routine? That’s the question that I’m asking myself right now.
So I’ve unpacked all the bullshit, I know what I went through, I know who I am and I know what I’m doing here right at this moment, but what I don’t know, is who I am outside of being told who I am supposed to be.
Every woman on this planet grows up with a specific kind of patriarchal conditioning, that strips us of who we can be, and transforms us into who we need to be, in order to survive the same patriarchy telling us that we’re not allowed to want to survive.
I take everything a man says and compare it to a grain of salt, I’ve eaten a lot of salt in my lifetime to know what’s real and what’s bullshit now, but the effort is almost sweet.
It would be super sweet if men around the world stopped murdering my sisters before I got a chance to meet them. It would be super cool if men had as much respect for the women in their lives as they do the men. It would be super beautiful if men stopped caring about what other men think and started to think for themselves.
Nada Chehade wrote this beautiful piece called An Enchanted Kind of Woman, and it perfectly captures what it would take for women to live freely and proudly, a complete and total global and universal revolution against the men in our lives, the problem however and Nada knows this, is that revolution that will save womankind?
Will also get billions of us murdered, to add to the millions of already dead women and children on this planet.
There is no easy way for women everywhere to be free. It’s been less than a hundred years since women were allowed to vote, as early as yesterday some women still aren’t allowed to have credit cards or land in their name because the men in the lives of these women, won’t allow girls and women freedom. Even though they have a legal right to these freedoms a lot of western women don’t know what to ask, or where to go to ask.
So they don’t.
A revolution. In my time? Women everywhere not being raped so men can look like they are tough patriarchal supporters? Women not being murdered? Girls allowed to wear their hair and bodies the way they like? Trans folks being allowed to exist? What a beautiful mind to create such a dream.
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall
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