Please don’t call me ‘girl’,
Or classify me as ‘one of the girls.’
I’m not a girl- I’m a woman
And my womanhood has been hard-earned
When someone calls me ‘girl’ it feels so out of alignment with who I deeply know myself to be
I feel a visceral sensation of contraction; I recoil
There are so many figures of speech that are so normalised – and I’m noticing this is one of them.
I believe language is a reflection of our culture :
A culture that lacks true rites of passage into womanhood
A culture that exalts maidenhood,
and that I believe is intimidated by true embodied womanhood –
She who is …
Her own woman
Not daddy’s girl
Not belonging to any institution or religion
Or any man
She who is not ‘one of the girls’
But a woman amongst women
The more I refine my word
The more sensitive I am to the way that words are misused;
To the way words can do harm
Perpetuating paradigms that I no longer subscribe to
Our words are how we create our world
And I’m here to embody and call forth the mature feminine;
To offer rites of womanhood
I feel that changing the languaging around this is important.
I feel the same way when someone refers to me as ‘guys’
I’m not a guy either
I’m a woman
And I’m proud to be a woman
Wield your words with wisdom
Our words are spells,
So use them wisely
