Girls are born with plenty of rage already, but we squash it. What if we nurtured and encouraged the expression of anger in girls the same way we encouraged reading skills: as necessary for their navigation of the world? Imagine a girl justifiably enraged at her mistreatment.
Imagine if we acknowledged her justifiable anger so that a girl understood she would be heard if anyone abused her and that her anger was just as important a trait as honesty.
What kind of woman would such a girl grow up to be?
We must teach girls that their anger is a valuable weapon in defying, disobeying, and disrupting patriarchy, which pummels and kills the anger out of girls.
It socializes them to acquiesce and to be compliant, because obedient girls grow up to become obedient foot-soldiers of the patriarchy. They grow up to internalize its rules, which are used to police other women who disobey.
Once while standing in line at Denver airport security, a white man — another passenger waiting to go through — demanded I “prove” I was a U.S. citizen. “Fuck you!” was my immediate response. #WhyISayFuckfeministgiant.com/p/essay-why-i-…
Another white man immediately and predictably chimed in: “Language! Language!” But what is really more offensive here, the first man’s white supremacist fuckery or my language?
If you think that’s a serious question, then fuck you too. #WhyISayFuck
I say “fuck” because that’s what racism deserves. I am from the “If they go low, I will fucking come for them” school of thought. I refuse to be polite or civil with anyone who does not acknowledge my full humanity. #WhyISayFuck
It's the 2nd anniversary of my 2nd book! To celebrate, I've written an essay on the importance of nurturing anger in girls. Anger is one of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls.
What would the world look like if girls were taught they were volcanoes, whose eruptions were a thing of beauty, a power to behold and a force not to be trifled with?
"How much is a little girl worth?" -- Simone Biles.
The four-time Olympic gold medallist asked that question when she testified last week before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee examining failures in the FBI's investigation into former US Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar
Nassar sexually abused Biles and hundreds of other athletes.
The answer to her question, if we are honest, is: little girls are worth NOTHING.
If men themselves are not free of the ravages of racism, capitalism and other forms of oppression, it is not enough to say I want to be equal to them or to do whatever they can.
As long as patriarchy remains unchallenged, men will continue to be the default and the standard against which everything is measured. My ambition is for much more. I want to be free. feministgiant.com/p/essay-my-amb…
You need a robust ego to be a feminist. You need a massive amount of faith in yourself and your right to be seen and heard in order to be a warrior against patriarchy. feministgiant.com/p/a-vindicatio…
One of my literary heroes, the Chicana lesbian poet, writer and feminist theorist Gloria Anzaldúa wrote in This Bridge Called My Back, "A woman who writes has power. A woman who writes is feared. In the eyes of the world this makes us dangerous beasts."