My name is Woman

My name is Woman
Assaulted
Accosted
Abused
A victim

Survivor

My name is Worth 86% of an equivalent man's labor

My name is "nice"
Seen and unheard
Polite, ever smiling
The smile hides the fear

Too angry, my name is dead
Too nice, my name is dead
Too pretty, too ugly, too confident, too proud, too comfortable, too bossy, too meek, too shamed

My pain is ignored by doctors, dismissed by men, belittled by authorities, and then it's terminal cancer and I was right all along

I don't go running, I don't walk slowly, I don't zone out to music, I don't relax in public

I can't stream without five mods present, I can't play video games with my mic on, I can't post videos with any remotely identifying information in them, I can't meet my best friends from the internet

I can't talk back to creepy 65 year old men who see, who know, who take relentless disgusting pleasure in making my skin crawl because if I'm too loud I'll get called a bitch at best, raped and murdered at worst, but if I'm too agreeable I'll get raped anyway and then the courts won't believe me because he'll say "she was friendly, I thought she wanted it"

My name is only being able to vote for the last hundred years in a country of "freedom" that's 250 years old

My name is debilitating menstrual cramps that can't exist, but my pain tolerance is now so high that oh actually that was my appendix and now I'm on a razor's edge with death on the line

My name is slut if I dare to enjoy my body, prude if I refuse, whore if I take those pigs' money, or cunt if my attitude is a little strong that day

My name is disrespected, dismissed, ignored, written over, stolen from, rejected

My name is rendered worthless if I dare not want to bear children, but relegated to four walls and a life of servitude if I do

My body is claimed by men, for I cannot sterilize myself without my husband's permission, even if I'm married to a woman and slowly dying of endometriosis

My tears, uncried lest I be labeled weak, are the blood of thousands of women and little girls stolen every year, raped or sold into prostitution, kidnapped and killed for the fact that they are women and therefore lesser

My name is liar and deceiver if I dared to be born with a Y chromosome, but then realize at some point in my life that I am a woman, rejected by men because I'm definitely not a man, and rejected by women who claim to fight for women's rights because I don't exist in nature

My name is Woman

I am beautiful and powerful and I am worthy of everything good in the world

But until Man evolves to recognize my importance...

My name is Woman
Not Equal
Not Alli or Amy or Sarah

Said with a sneer
As a threat
As a warning

My name is Woman