Feminism.

When a male friend asked me what class I was taking, I said Intro To Gender and Women's Studies,
and he replied, "Hmm sounds pretty boring."
I almost fainted.
This wasn't the first time.
I grasped for air.
I could have smacked him in the face with a fist full of feminism.
I didn't know what to do,
So instead, I simply said...
"No. It's actually a great class. A lifestyle even."
I took the easy way out.
I cowardly bent my pride in front of all the women who stood strongly before me with bent backs, bent rules, bent men, but never bent hearts.
Karen. Hazel. Robin. Emma.
I let them down when I decided to close my mouth.
To not make people too uncomfortable.
To be quiet, to be pretty, to be submissive.
To be less of a "boy" and more of a "girl" so,
What's in a woman?
Is she anything more than the care she gives, than the love she holds, than the lives she changes?
Is she anything more than a nice body, than a pretty face, than a dumb mind?
I have learned more in one year than I ever have in my entire life and I've learned the beauty of feminism.
I've learned that not many people like that word.
That it's okay to be pro-something, but pro-women...that's a bit much don't you think?
Hush Hush little girl. Don't speak too often, Don't dream too big.
Stop growing so large, you're beginning to pour over your cookie cutter pieces.
SHRINK.
Don't you want to fit like the other girls?
Like Barbie?
Cook, clean, stay your ass at home.
Be hidden.
Take the punches.
It doesn't matter what you say, they'll believe him anyways.
Ask for it. And when he takes it from you, they'll tell you NO isn't a complete sentence.
You were asking for it, remember.
Wearing a skirt and too high of heels made you a victim that day.
Tell them listen up.
Tell them dress code has nothing to do with it.
Tell them I, as a woman, have rights.
To equal opportunity, equal access.
I, as a woman, have the right to walk alone and not fear my life.
I, as a woman, have the right to go off to college without my parents worrying sick about my safety.
I am a victim before I am even a victim.
Tell them I'm scared.
I don't fit like they do, and until this very moment I didn't understand how much I was morphing, uncomfortably into this being.
Tell them Gender and Women's Studies is a class that changed my life.
That has opened my eyes.
That has made me a feminist.
Pro-Black, Pro-Chicana, Pro-Trans,
Pro-Broke, Pro-However you come--- FEMINIST.