girls get killed for their power. we are killed for our beauty, for our autonomy, for our intelligence.
the world punishes what they dislike, and there is nothing that history hates more than women. helen is blamed in troy, but is it truly her beauty that coaxed the wooden horse or the greed of powerful men? boys who could not settle for a no and felt so entitled to a woman's body that they would rather fight for a decade than listen to a word she says?
achilles tortured briseis, and yet he remains the hero, the brave warrior who fought despite the fundamental flaw of his heel. it doesn't matter if the woman he held captive was bleeding and crying, because history erases her. they favour the heroes. and women are hardly ever heroes. we forget athena guides odysseus and we forget that cassandra was right all along, we just remember apollo and his heartbreak.
and so the girls get killed. slowly. we hate helen for the war she caused, we hate athena for her flaws fed to us through a male dominated narrative, we forget cassandra and briseis in favour of the exciting world of mythical soldiers and gods who chase girls into trees and kill boyfriends with their discus.
history kills girls. 'she' becomes his wife, his main support. he couldn't have done it without her. all of his late nights, and all of the meals she prepared and love she unwillingly gave. he couldn't have done it without her, but she did it without him. he just stole her diary and published it, taking the money for his own, paying for sex from women who had no other choice. we know this, but we keep his name on the title, and it's only after thorough research that you learn who 'she' is.
we burn women at the stake because of unfounded rumours and fears of their abilities. we use their bodies as weapons of war and only think of the bombs and brave veterans. we force little girls into marriage and complain when women ask to not be drugged when they leave the house for the night.
girls get killed for walking home. girls get killed for breaking up with their boyfriends. girls get killed for... well, just because. we are born with girlhood in our blood and somewhere along the way we've forgotten what it means.
girlhood isn't just pink and bows and skincare in pastel packaging. it isn't just gossip over an overpriced latte we buy every day.
girlhood is the arsenic in our tampons and the rape threats in our comment sections. girlhood is being a bitch for having self-respect and being an easy target when you're too scared to say no, even when they're approaching you with a wild wolf-like grin with the claws to match.
girlhood is the anger we are raised with. girlhood is being told to smile more, being told you run too slow, being told to run faster to escape the wolves. girlhood is not being strong enough to carry the chairs, girlhood is being the unwilling babysitter, girlhood is being told to cover up, girlhood is being told that you shouldn't have worn that skirt and then the wolf wouldn't have struck. girlhood is choosing the bear, because they don't play with their food.
girlhood is helen. it's her beauty and fear and the blame she has carried for millennia. girlhood is briseis. it's her story and shame and the voice she never had the chance to use. girlhood is athena and her wisdom and cassandra and her knowledge and those uncredited wives who saved the world and didn't even have their names printed.
girls get killed for existing incorrectly. history hides their ghosts and burns their stories just like they burnt the witches at the stakes.
feminine rage runs through my blood, and i will keep it that way until i die. for her. for all of the girls.
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