Listen and listen closely—I will not say this again. I am not ashamed. I am not filled with regret. I am not going to change my mind. This is who I am.
I have a brain and I also have breasts. I am proud of both. I have a mind, a working mind, a productive and creative mind—I also have a body. This is the wonderful thing: my body does not negate my mind. My mind does not negate my body. Look, isn’t this wonderful? I can have both!
I understand that in the past women were forced to make a choice: be beautiful or be brainy. Be serious or be sexual. Be chaste or be chastised. That time has passed.
I refuse to be forced to make a choice, to submit to the virgin/whore dichotomy. I refuse to sacrifice happiness, contentedness, satisfaction, adventure—I refuse to sacrifice my life and my personality for an archaic and oppressive virtue. I refuse to endure lectures and judgment from people who cannot understand my choices. I refuse to be silenced. I refuse to be censored. I refuse to be defeated by a worn out, baseless argument for chastity or modesty whose only purpose is to deny females their right to have it all.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 21st century. Welcome to a world where a woman can have sex however she chooses: in a relationship, outside of a relationship, in love, out of love, in a hurry, out of lust, in excess and out of darkness. Welcome to a world without double standards. Welcome to a world without medieval codes of conduct, disparate expections for men and women and, best of all, welcome to a world where seeking pleasure does not mean invoking shame—your own or someone else’s.
Do not tell me that in celebrating my body, my sexuality, my physical existence that I am somehow betraying myself—betrayal would be denying myself the right to choose the colour and context of my happiness.
If you look at me and only see breasts that is your failure, not mine.
Paint me with a scarlet letter; I will wear it with pride. I will happily, dutifully wear that letter as a symbol of my refusal to be broken by the misogynist social code that prohibits women from exalting in their capacity to simultaneously experience sex and respect.
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the 21st century.
In celebration of womanhood- Ruhi
for the story goes:
(via gauntlet)
