Here’s to the Girls

Oct 10

Here’s to the Girls

Here’s to the girls who grew up thinking they were too much for this world, because they don’t fit an ideal they never had a say in.

Here’s to the girls that do fit the mould, and suffer just as much under the pressure to stay there.

Here’s to the girls who like having their hair done with glitter and bows, then going outside and wrestling in mud with wreckless abandon.

Here's to the girls that want to play dolls and netball, and the girls that would rather play sword-fights and run amok on the footy oval.

Here’s to the girls deemed too loud, while their male counterparts were applauded for their rambunctiousness.
The girls told to sit down and be quiet.
To be seen and not heard.
To behave more ‘ladylike’.
To dress more ‘ladylike’.
To eat more ‘ladylike’.
To BE more ‘ladylike’.
You are perfect as you are, it’s the world that needs changing.

And here’s to the boys that grew up alongside us, also struggling as they tried to live up to the misconceived expectations of ‘manhood’.

There is room enough on this planet for women, men, and every single identification in between.
Just as there is enough room within every single one of us for masculinity, femininity, and every other trait that should never have been defined as one or the other.

So go do the things that make you feel pretty.
Do the things that make you feel strong.
Do the things that’s make you feel alive.
Do anything and everything that makes you, you.

I fight ‘like a girl’, run ‘like a girl’, play sport ‘like a girl’, and approach life ‘like a girl’. None of these are insults anymore, because after spending most of my life feeling lesser every time I heard them, I can proudly reply - Yep, that’s because I AM a girl.

My strengths and weaknesses are linked to my humanity, not my gender.

~Simone Brick 2019~