Girl

I used to be the kind of girl who said

"I'm not like other girls" 

Because I read big books

Drank tea

Wore ripped jeans and snarky tshirts.

Turning my nose up at

Short skirts and made-up faces 

Wearing heels in the high school halls.

I used to say I was smarter than the average girl

Looking down from my books

And the education my parents paid for

Like it was something I had earned or deserved 

Instead of something I was born into

As surely as someone else wasn't.

Reciting facts and quotes someone else told me

Were important

Without asking why.

I used to roll my eyes at words like feminist

Words like equal pay and sexiam

Say things like "it's only a few cents"

And "That's just how it is"

And "Well don't dress like that."

Drinking down all the messages I recieved

From the media

From tradition

From parents of my friends and people at my church.

We are all like each other.

Tea drinking or martini sipping

Book reading or phone texting.

Jeans or skirts, flip flops or heels

You can't tell me that a shoe

A tube of lipstick

One look or another

Makes me into a different girl 

Just by the casual application

Don't pit me against the girls in short skirts and heels

Or teach me to side-eye the plus-sizes

Don't try to tell me that

Brown girls or black ones aren't as good 

Because they have colors where I lack them.

Don't show me those pictures

And say 'sex sells.'

Do you think that I don't see you lurking there?

Whispering that we aren't good enough

That we're better than them at least

And if we step on her, we can go higher.

I am not the naive little girl I once was.

You can't fool me any more