What is it to be a woman if it is not to carry the weight of the suppressed ambitions of the women who came before me?
To have journals filled with my desire to be less than I am, to be smaller - to be prettier. Pleading with the Creator to stifle my intellect so I can be fulfilled by the mundane calling of dishes and laundry.
Each line echoes the writings of my mother, of her mother, and of her mother.
What is it to be a woman if it is not to reject the mold?
If I am to exist - I must embrace my own being. I must recognize my autonomy.
I read what they were forbidden to read. I learn relentlessly. I write to find my voice. I fulfill the ambitions of the women who came before me. The work is not only feasible - it is womanly.
// Wollstonecraft-ish
Artwork: Under the Burden of Adversity, Teodor Axentowicz