This is a powerful and excellent piece. I have a daughter, almost 9 years old. It breaks my heart when she constantly asks me if she’s ugly. Or, worse yet, tells me she thinks she’s ugly. Because someone at school made a comment about her looks. In our home, we value intelligence above all else (I say we; I mean me as her father and I are divorced). So I tell her she’s beautiful and smart. And smart matters more. It’s sad when people assume because you’re attractive then you probably aren’t smart and anyway it doesn’t matter cuz you’re a pretty girl so you don’t need to also be smart (also, we don’t really want you to be). Ugh. Forget about it. It took me way too many years to accept that reality and I’m still not totally okay with myself after years of being bullied as a kid. What’s worse is that as women we treat each other so badly. It’s bad enough we let men treat us like we’re less than. We can’t also expect the same treatment from other women. It’s not right. I don’t want my daughter living in a world where she isn’t free. But that seems to be the reality of where we live. My mother made an active choice to leave behind friends, family, a job, a home, and so on to come to America, where she perceived her family would be more free. And I don’t know what place Israel (the country of my birth) ranks in regards to women’s freedom but I imagine it’s less than here considering all the religious nonsense over there. Still, its sad and disheartening to be reminded that we live in what should be the greatest country in the world and yet is so far behind so many others. I was always proud to be an American. I thought it meant so much. Nowadays I would much rather be Canadian, to be honest. They seem to be ahead of us in many areas.