Sit up, girl!

As a child I heard this phrase many times. I believe that all girls have heard this phrase or something similar to this: “Sit down, girl!”.

I, at that stage, didn't understand why I had to sit properly, with my legs aligned (I was going to write “closed legs”, but I found it a bit rude), if the boys could sit anyway and nobody said anything.

What is the reason for this differentiation?

As I grew up, I began to understand that the reason for this and so many other statements was the fact that I was born a woman.

As a female, I shouldn't swear, I had to know how to sit, I never swear, I couldn't speak loudly, I had to pay attention to my clothes, I had to be a "straight girl" etc.

For a while, I even accepted this as truth, as a form of protection against possible onslaughts from people of bad nature. After a few years, however, I began to feel suffocated and to question again: why only women? And the men? Can't they also be attacked? Or worst: Why should I hide like I'm doing something wrong, while whoever is really wrong thinks they have the right to do whatever they want freely?

Why when I go out on the street feeling great with the clothes I chose, should I feel bad because a being thinks he has the right to invade my space with offensive words and gestures, which he considers “normal”? Or when I want to go out at night and everyone advises me not to go out, and the most sensible thing would be that whoever was in prison would be the one who thinks he has the right to attack a woman alone because he thinks that women alone are objects without an owner?

The most difficult part of my journey of questioning was to observe that, for many centuries, women were really considered objects, not just for contemplation, but objects of exchange and sale.

At that moment, I also discovered many other women who opposed all these rules, and because of these women things began to change.

These women fought for the right to their own bodies, for the right to love whoever they wanted, for the right to vote, not needing to get married, not needing to have a man speak for them.

In fact, all women are very strong, which creates a certain fear in people who do not know how to dialogue and/or who do not know how to recognize emotions and feelings.

Our path as totally free women is long, but it has been evolving continuously. I hope that in a few years no girl will need to hear something like: “close those legs, girl!”.

You may like other articles by this author. See also: Veganism and love.