15 Empowering Excerpts To Celebrate Women (Today, And Every Day)
1.
“So to my daughter: Should any fool mishandle that wild geography of your body, how it rides a red running current like any good wolf or witch, well then just bleed, boo. Get that blood a biblical name, something of stone and mortar. Name it after Eve’s first rebellion in that garden, name it after the last little girl to have her genitals mutilated in Kinshasa, that was this morning. Give it as many syllables as there are unreported rape cases.
Name the blood something holy, something mighty, something unlanguageable, something in hieroglyphs, something that sounds like the end of the world. Name it for the war between your legs, and for the women who will not be nameless here. Just bleed anyhow, spill your impossible scripture all over the good furniture. Bleed, and bleed, and bleed on everything he loves, period.”
— “The Period Poem,” Dominique Christina
2.
“what’s the greatest lesson a woman should learn?
that since day one. she’s already had everything
she needs within herself. it’s the world that
convinced her she did not.
3.
“I wear heels because it’s useless to cater to the insecure. You think people won’t notice you? You should shine brighter. You should get more special. You should love yourself enough to not let a woman in heels emasculate you.”
— “Heels,” Imani Cezanne
4.
“girls like us should
come with a
warning sign.”
5.
“I come in too many flavors for one f*cking spoon.”
— “Feminist or a Womanist,” Staceyann Chin
6.
“Some days
I am more wolf
than woman
and I am still learning
how to stop apologising
for my wild.”
— “Wolf And Woman,” Nikita Gill
7.
“I am a woman. And whatever shape that should be, I don’t care.
I do not need to fit this female mold, the ‘should be,’ ‘supposed to be,’ ‘right’ kind of woman. I have no interest in being the right kind of woman.”
8.
“Everyone wants a strong woman
until she actually stands up,
flexes her muscles,
projects her voice
Suddenly, she is too much.
She has forgotten her place.
You love those women
as ideas, fantasies.
Not as breathing, living humans
threatening to be even better
than you could ever be.”
9.
“Here I am, as a female writer, who lives in this world as a woman, who lives in a world that does not pay her the same as males, who lives in a world where I am statistically not safe from predatory behavior, I am trying to represent other women. I do not need a male to do so.”
— “Where Have All The Good Male Poets Gone?,” Bianca Sparacino
10.
“You’re worth so much more than your waistline. You’re worth the beautiful thoughts you think, and the daring dreams you dream, undone and drunk off alcohol of being. But sometimes we forget that.”
— “What Guys Look For In Girls,” Savannah Brown
11.
“You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.”
— “Still I Rise,” Maya Angelou
12.
“I am not a Sunday morning
inside four walls
with clean blood
and organized drawers.
I am the hurricane
setting fire to the forests
at night
when no one else is alive
or awake
however you choose to see it
and I live in my own flame
sometimes burning too bright
and too wild
to make things last
or handle
myself or anyone else
and so I run.”
13.
“i bleed
every month.
but
do not die.
how am i
not
magic.
— “the lie,” Nayyirah Waheed
14.
“Women are told
to be courageous but careful
knowing but needy, aware
but always awaiting
someone’s love, someone’s hand
pulling us from the earth but
I don’t want to be the kind of
woman who waits
Who relies
who wills her wishes away
to be a pretty bud in a windowsill.
I am a woman
but I will not flit between
delicate and empowered.
I will not grace the vase
on your bedside table.
You will find me roots and stem
shining towards my own sun
grounded
independent
strong.”
— “I Am A Woman,” Marisa Donnelly
15.
“you tell me to quiet down cause
my opinions make me less beautiful
but i was not made with a fire in my belly
so i could be put out
i was not made with a lightness in my tongue
so i could be easy to swallow
i was made heavy
half blade and half silk
difficult to forget but
not easy for the mind to follow.”
