I think something that needs to be understood collectively is that there is no such thing as a girlhood without violence, as girlhood is defined by violence, and in the sense that we experienced gendered violence as young people for our transgressions against gender hegemony, that itself was the true experience of girlhood. the yearning for some primal "pure" "happy" girlhood is like a desire for a cake with frosting and no cake. no girlhood was pure or happy because the defining characteristic of "girlhood" as contrasted with "childhood" is "gendered suffering and violence." You do not "wish you got to grow up as a little girl." You did grow up as a little girl, it was just miserable. What you wish for is a world liberated from gender altogether, which requires the obliteration of gender with unrelenting and brutal force.
