Doctor JPK’s Womanifesto
Achieve. Believe. Do. Dream. Succeed.
The words I tell myself. The words my mother told me.
I can do what I want.
I can be what I want.
I can go where I want.
But she wore hose and skirts to work every day –
Because They told her to.
Both of us constrained by this lattice; this structure They made that framed my view of
Who I was allowed to be.
What I was allowed to do.
Where I was allowed to go.
What I was allowed to say.
How I was allowed to feel.
As long as I honored Them, pleased Them, loved Them, learned from Them.
As long as I honored the world They allowed me to see.
That lattice controlled me.
That framework masked my frustration, my anger, my doubt, my fear, my sadness, my guilt.
That prison stole my passion, my gifts, my talents, my individuality, my dreams, my uniqueness.
That fence kept me out and kept me in.
That front masked the pain of my persistence, of my resistance, of my very existence.
But guess what?
I can climb.
The vines of my womanhood – firmly rooted in pride, nourished by passion and supported by my own strength.
Reaching for what is possible.
Climbing higher, farther, faster – smothering the lattice – the ladder - I was given to climb.
Charting my own path and reaching the sunlight that envelopes me in its warmth.
Striving for something more beautiful and bright.
Vines of femininity defined by my rules – mine alone.
These vines cannot be contained.
They cannot be constrained.
They find ways under, over, around, and through.
They crush this false framework, this lattice of confinement, this prison of Their design.
So
I AM whatever I want to become.
I GO wherever it suits me to go.
I DO whatever I choose to do.
I BELIEVE whatever I choose to believe.
And I will BE whatever I want to be.
And I’ll do it in whatever I choose to wear.
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