She Is Still Unequal To Him
She is called reckless for the same things for which they hail him as courageous
She is told to “calm down” while he is high-fived to keep going
She is the one to drop out, to marry, while he is the one with the choice
She is the one who still has to be an assistant to him
She is the one whose appearance comes under intense scrutiny, before and much more, from the first signs of puberty
“Your breasts are too big for your uniform; Your hips are growing too wide, you are making boys look at you; can’t you do something about your pimples?”
She gets blamed for being raped — “Her cloth was revealing; what was she doing going there with a boy; why’d she pass through here at night?”
She has been used as a currency to barter the provision of security and food for the family
She is the child for which they announce her delivery as “a baby girl” while they sing his praises as “a bouncing baby boy”
Because boys are to bounce, as the special inheritors of the family’s name and inheritance, while girls wait with clasped hands and folded knees, on the man who will “honor” them by choosing to share his name
She is the girl child
She is still considered the lesser gender; the weak one
She is still unequal to him
Her time is now — her rights, her future
She is the one who will keep proving them wrong
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