I am not a girl.
If being a girl means being quiet, then I am not a girl.
If being a girl means my thoughts are not rational, then I am not a girl.
If being a girl means criticizing girls for their weight, make-up, hair, style, or personality, then I am not a girl.
If being a girl means giving up some percentage of my worth in the working economy, then I am not a girl.
If being a girl means ensuring that others needs are met without attention to my own, then I am not a girl.
If being a girl means being bad at math or incurious about structures, then I am not a girl.
If being a girl means smiling when I’m told to smile, then I am not a girl.
If being a girl means I must edit myself, or perform dishonesty, to uphold the unearned pride of the boys and men around me, then I am deeply and definitely NOT a girl.
If being a girl means wanting to care for and nurture children above all things, then I am not a girl.
If being a girl means that I clean up after men around me, then I am not a girl.
If being a girl means waiting to be seen, discovered, or otherwise validated by the eyes and opinions of a man before knowing my worth, then I am no longer a girl.
If being a girl means being happy in second place, then I am not a girl.
If being a girl means apologizing for my appearance, for taking up space, or for not complying with someone else’s standards when they are arbitrary or erroneous, then I am not girl.
If being a girl means I value the feelings of others, then I could be a girl.
If being a girl means using my intuition to consider what’s best for everyone, to be thoughtful and caring because I want to be, then I might be a girl.
If being a girl means being connected to the knowledge of earth, of nature, of motherhood, of feminine strength, then I can be a girl.
If being a girl means living and demonstrating the thrilling intensity of both my emotions and my intellect, then I am a girl.
If being a girl means having a female body, then I am a girl.
But if being a girl means anything less to anyone than being fully human, with all capabilities, all sensibilities, all powers of choice and being, then I refuse to be a girl to make you feel comfortable.
Though a female body, on probabilistic averages, comes with differences from male ones, I reject the social expectations heaped upon me due to the behaviors our groups have developed in order to manage our mating and reproduction. I reject the story that people need in order to offer permission to their sexuality.
I am a person. I do sex and sexuality. We do gender. I am a whole person. If I must be less than the rational, screaming, intuitive, powerful, finite, broken, honest, stumbling, weak, imperfect, and deeply, deeply human thing that I am to be a girl, then I am not a girl.
I can do girl in my female body. I can do boy in my female body. I can do whatever I will. Because I am a person, and because I have set myself free.
