I am a woman | Jilly Ballantyne

I am a woman.

I am corrupted by a senseless world around me.

I am taught to sit up straight and speak less and say nothing and stay silent.

I am scolded for having an opinion about my own body or my own future or my own life.

I am hurt for fun and laughs and leave marks as I scratch away at the pollution on my skin.

I am lost for I have been told that I am waiting to be found and used and abused and discarded.

I am a woman with words and emotions and pain and trauma and it has been numbed.

I am a part of a society unable to seperate sexism from ‘boyhood’ and rape from ‘no clear consent’ and assault from ‘an argument that got out of hand’ and love from ‘domestic abuse’.

I could be the one in three who finds themselves a victim of domestic abuse.

I could be involved in one of 13,547 sexual crimes recorded in 2018/19 although as women we know that’s just the type of the iceberg.

I could be a survivor of revenge porn or slut shaming or cat calling or worse.

I am a part of a society that I have no desire to contribute to unless it changes for the better and women are empowered and held and loved and cherished the way that they should be.

I am a woman.

Not ALL women.

But, I am a woman.

And I am not free.

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Jilly Ballantyne

She/Her

Instagram: @mynameisjilly

https://www.thehouseofrevolution.co.uk/meettheteam