At what point do you tell your girl a park's not just for play? At night time, stay away, there's danger lurking all around. And round about dusk, the rustles in the bushes might be home to something much more menacing than bushy-tailed creatures that are out to steal your crisps. The risks of a shortcut.
I bet your Uber's kept a float out of women's pockets, makes its profits as the cons of walking home alone far outweighs the pros. And does she know that she'll pay for a taxi to avoid getting murdered? by a stranger then spend the entire journey aware of the danger that this might be the stranger who will finally murder her if i had a pound for all the pounds lost due to the cost of having to consider getting home without a costment i still wouldn't earn the same as men but then again the system's rigged to constantly remind us our beauty is behind us and so we must invest in lotions and potions the extent of the ocean to maintain a sense of relevance i'm relatively sure you If I'd have saved all the money that promised flatter tummies or younger skin or looking thin or better hair or buying uncomfortable underwear for him For him. For him. Well, I'd be halfway to a mortgage.
But more than that, I'd have a sense of power back They profit off our lack, you see. Attack appearance constantly confine us to the binary of slut or saint We can't escape but both are tainted. We're well acquainted with the shame born into a losing game. And it's the same with contraception.
Sex is no exception. We're expected to bear the burden or else bear a birth that we never expected, hadn't projected for. And if we're lucky enough to get the pill for free, the bill will be floated by our bloated bodies.
And it could cost us anything from mood swings and low sex drive to blood clots and higher rates of suicidal thoughts and depression. It's given the impression that we accept this as part of the course of womanhood, but it is understood that we would never expect this for a man and who would trust them anyway. So we'll pay more to conform to societal norms, even down to spending more on our school uniforms.
12% more for a girl's blazer. Not to mention on tampons and razors, it's crazy, but so normalised that it used to not faze me. Sometimes I wonder who I'd be if I existed just for me.
If my entire existence hadn't consisted of persistently viewing myself through a male's gaze. If the haze lifted, and I could wear whatever the fuck I want without consequence. And yet, I'm well aware of the hypocrisy of getting older. I'm well aware that not too far from now, their looks I once despised, I'll begin to crave. It's exposing in their light, but so much colder in their shade.
If a woman falls in a forest and there's no man there to save her, can she even say she lived at all? I dread the moment I might feel invisible, where my aging body is less considerable. No wonder people get in surgery to feel less fucking miserable.
Do you know how it feels to hover above yourself? Hyper aware, the left foot in the present, the right not really there because it's running away with itself. Preparing itself for what could possibly go wrong because it has. gone wrong.
I'm tired of constant vigilance. I'm tired of constant vigils. They seem to be rising without uprising and yet we act surprised every time another woman gets killed. Don't be too nice, it'll get you killed. Don't be so rude, it'll get you killed.
Socialized into politeness that still gets us killed. They rap bitch at us and then within the same breath they complain they're not getting enough respect and it's reflected in real life. It's reflected in banter with the guys.
It's reflected in the wage gap, the thigh gap, the orgasm gap, the fact that victims are rarely believed. The fact that justice is barely achieved. The fact that it costs us so much more to just be. So tell me, because I want to hear what you have to say for it. At what point do you tell your girl her life is only worth what she is able to pay for it?
Thank you.