I have been taking literature classes and reading about the struggle that women have had to gain simple independences. It’s sad that for many years we fought against the prejudices of men to gain the freedom to vote, possess property, find employment, and enjoy independence. Now we fight against each other in our pettiness and our insecurities. We scrabble to gain the imagined upper hand when we should be supporting each other in the fight we still have for equality.
This war exists in the classroom, our workplace, within our social sphere, and sometimes within our own families. Have we, as women, fought so hard that we are unable to get out of the mindset of fighting? Do we imagine that if we don’t continue to hone these skills, that should the need arise to resume the fight for our independence— we will have lost the skill? Do we fight out of fear that someone will take our imagined deserved place?
It has come to the feeling that we cannot share the successes we have for fear it would be tantamount to firing the first shot. Our allies are made up of cliques. Our shields are made of distrust. Our bows are made up of suspicion. Our arrows are made of gossiping. We wield guns of backstabbing and shoot bullets of whispers. Veiled threats are encroached behind vapid smiles.
I was thinking about this idea as I was assigned to write a poem in one of my classes. The instructions were to incorporate repetitions with a simple rhyming structure. If possible – aim toward an argument. I don’t claim to be a poet; a fact that I gave as a disclaimer when I was instructed to read it out loud in class.
As Women
As women we fought for equal rights
Equal rights were our rallying cause
Now our time is spent fighting because
As women we were raised to give sleights
As women we should hand out praise
Praise should flow easily as the rain
Flowing easily it’s hard to contain
As women let us combat the clichés
As women can’t we value one another
Rather than compete with our gender
No more competition with each other
As women we ought to be tender
Our strength would be better served fighting inequality and injustices rather than each other.