The Feminist

I'm going to bring up

Gender equality

Being a "feminist"

And what that means.

Let's talk about stereotypes

And why they exist

Why we continue to accept

The explanations they give

As if:

Women are incapable of saving ourselves

We need to be held

In sickness, in health;

Women are incapable of loving ourselves

Our innocence is virtue, is value, is wealth;

Women are incapable of escaping that tower

We sit and we sing

Maintaining hair by the hour.

Well I'm sick of hearing

That chivalry is dead

Because I hold the door

And let you go instead.

I'm sick of being labeled a "feminist"

Because I am capable

And independent.

I don't do it because I'm a woman,

That's not why I insist that I pay

I do it because I'm Lydia

And that's the way I was raised.

I'm not trying to be feminist

I'm not trying to make a point

It's just who I am

In my bones, in my joints.

Don't think that only gender

Makes her who she is

Character can't be broken

Into hers, into his.

Don't attribute traits to a gender or a cause

Attibute to each person

Their virtues and their flaws.

Yeah, I'm independent

I hold my own door

And when I fall down,

I pick myself off the floor

But that doesn't make me a "feminist"

Who hates men and loves power

It makes me a princess

Who tore down her own tower.

So treat me as you will

A women enslaved or a girl freed

Because Damn it!

I'm Lydia

And that's the only label I need.