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.
Jilly Ballantyne
She/Her
Instagram: @mynameisjilly
https://www.thehouseofrevolution.co.uk/meettheteam