As I write this, I sit in awe of what is going on in the world around us. Women everywhere are being told they don’t matter. How they feel, does not matter. Your body does not matter. Their basic human rights, do not matter.
As a young adult, I sit and think about how I would have viewed all that is happening if I was still a young girl.
There are little girls watching the news alongside their parents in the family room. Little girls who hear a clip on the radio on the way to school. Little girls who overhear adults talking at soccer practice. Little girls who are confused and curious. After all, don’t we teach them that their bodies are precious and belong to only them from a very young age?
So what kind of message are we sending when we say you don’t matter? The decisions regarding your body are to be made by others and outside of your control.
Are we creating strong, empowered, independent, confident women when they aren’t even in control of the choices they make? Or are we creating women who will have self- esteem issues, low self-confidence, and self-hatred?
The right for women to be able to make their own decisions and control their own life paths is what is at stake. The ability of women to be accepted for who they are and plan their lives the way they want to plan their lives. Their dignity respected, their autonomy respected, their ability to make decisions for themselves about what they’re going to do but their bodies and with their futures and with their lives, and that is what is at stake and that is what was being affirmed.
This isn’t political, it’s fundamental to your dignity, to be able to decide to make decisions for yourself.
So to the little girls like me circa many years ago, who may be sitting around hearing what others are saying. Who are scolded and chastised for asking questions. Who are taught that talking about your body and the things it can do is taboo. This is for you. I hope you listen to the little voice in your head and if you can’t speak out on it now, I hope it grows into a loud and powerful roar that enables you to speak up on anything you believe in.
Angela Joy 