Girls Astray. [Complete]

That Girl: Lolita's entry. Draft.

That Girl: Lolita's Entry 

Draft

Today is international women's day. This means my Instagram feed is littered with fake Marilyn Monroe quotes and lines stating 'the King needs his Queen'. I mean, is it just me that thinks this suggests our whole existence is equivalent to a game of chess? Or that the King may need his Queen, but due to the implicit hierarchy within those titles, the Queen is still subservient to the King? And therefore reliant on the King? Even the use of the personal pronoun suggests possession; objectification; ownership. The relevance of these images on international women's day baffles me. Is that what it's about? Justifying your existence to the man? Or quoting a sex symbol for men? It's got me thinking- why do we need international women's day? Or let me be frank and selfish here, why would I need it?

In a modern western society, equality should be considered a given, right? And yet, despite being told I can do anything; despite being told I have more opportunities than any woman before me and that I can finally be whoever I want to be- I don't feel it. I don't see it. We just hear it, apparently.

I don't feel it in the rolled eyes when I raise my hand in class. I don't see it from the eyes that survey me from head to toe when I walk down the hall. I don't hear it from the cat calls that follow me down the street. When I carefully construct my face with different shades of white, careful triangles of colour that's meant to make my face thinner, sharper: prettier, I don't see it. When I clip in someone else's hair- to make my own fine short hair become longer, thicker, blonder: I don't feel it.

Every day I look across the room and see girls heads bowed, eyes frowning, as they scroll down their phone screens: their eyes glued to the lights. When I scroll through my phone I see pages and pages of: perfect bodies, perfect abs, perfect arms, perfect bums, perfect thighs, even perfect teeth. Are these perfect people? Or perfect body parts? Perfect advertisements? That we buy into, feed into, until our sense of self-worth is packed away in a box behind the perfect illusion of society's image. The image we want to portray to the world. Or do we? Do I want to portray this image? A mask in front of a machine. Is this what being a woman is? Or is it what being human has become? A mere shell of what we could be.

Now I'm asking you, why do we need international women's day? Oh and remember to smile today.

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