Vitrina

“Women are taught to undermine themselves. Women have and will always be harshly criticised and overly judged. Women are taught to compete with other women. I choose my path to freedom by breaking out of this cycle. To this day, it’s hard to play the game as a woman. We are undermined and we have to fight for each and every tiny step. I realise that the more our external presence does not fit the misogynistic society, the more we risk drowning because of the exhaustion from swimming against the big machine current.”

It’s summer now, and you’re craving a simpler existence. You want to read. You want to write. You want to meet strangers for dinner, and not refuse another drink at another bar. You want to dance. You want to find yourself in a basement, neck loose, bobbing your head as a group of musicians play, not because they should, but because they must. It’s summer now, and you’re looking forward to worrying less. You’re looking forward to longer nights and shorter days. You’re looking forward to gathering in back gardens and watching meat sputter on an open barbecue. You’re looking forward to laughing so hard your chest hurts and you feel light-headed. You’re looking forward to the safety in pleasure. You’re looking forward to forgetting, albeit briefly, the existential dread which plagues you, which tightens your chest, which pains your left side. You’re looking forward to forgetting that, leaving the house, you might not return intact. You’re looking forward to freedom, even if it is short, even if it might not last. You’re looking forward.

I think about my ancestors all the time. They were people, people who fell in love, people who had pets, people who had a favorite book, people who were passionate about a specific topic, people who went through their own tragedy and suffering. Every single one of them was a person with their own unique life experiences.