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There are many mountains I need to climb just to be, just to live my life, just to have my say... because they are mountains you've built to oppress women.
Trigger Warning: This deals with various kinds of violence against women including rape, and may be triggering for survivors.
I haven’t climbed a literal mountain yet Was busy with the metaphorical ones – born a woman Fighting for the air that should have come free And I am one of the privileged ones, I realize that
Yet, if I get passionate, just like you do I will pay for it – with burden, shame, – and possibly a life to carry So, my mountains are the laws you overturn My mountains are the empty shelves where there should have been pills
My mountains are the courtroom stairs That I have to climb just to hear you slay Not the demons who violated me, for they’d be set free You slay by asking why it was me, and not anyone else?
My mountains are the garlands That you put use to honour my rapists The accolades, the excuses, and the promise that it will all happen again My mountains are the ones you set free
My mountains are the smaller pay checks And the unpaid caregiving that’s more mine than yours The small dreams crushed every day For its not safe for me to live your way
My mountains are your rights to my body I can’t say no, for I married you My mountain is your right to be angry And to beat me black and blue, for I married you
My mountains are the roads I can’t drive on without your permission The same ones that should have ours together I haven’t seen them, but that doesn’t matter It’s rough terrain to climb that they exist somewhere
What is the tallest mountain of these you ask? There is a me that believes that this is how it should be I am lesser and I matter less The burden of procreation, purity, and preservation, is all on me
I am emotional, and that is bad for boardroom I am not strong to fight battles so I need to wait as you war God gave us different bodies to prove his point So why should I cross a line that has been clearly marked
This is my biggest mountain, the tallest peak I am my own enemy, like you have taught me to be But slowly I have been gathering all of me Black, white, rich and poor; across caste, class, country
For all of my mountains Soon I will have an army, you’ll see And then Everest and Kilimanjaro will happen I will climb them alone at night – happily, and safely.
Image source: pixabay
Tanushree Ghosh (Ph. D., Chemistry, Cornell, NY), is Director at Intel Corp., a social activist, and an author. She is a contributor (past and present) to several popular e-zines incl. The Huffington Post US ( read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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