I am a feminist. 

I support women, 

I fight for women, 

I bleed for women. 

I will march in the streets until I am heard.  

Bearing my chest so my heart can speak words, 

I am a feminist. 

My life deserves to be lived.  

Restricted until marriage, then restrained after childbirth. 

Yes, my children are a prize, and they deserve better lives. 

But I have died twice before breathing once, 

I am a feminist. 

I no longer wish to hold the weight of your patriarchy upon my shoulders, I have dreams and passions that go beyond your expectations. 

Living my life the way I want requires no explanation. 

I am a feminist. 

I say I am a feminist, and so do you, 

Yet I am forced to stay asleep to the oppression you cause, 

Then awoken from my slumber if it supports your cause. 

I am tired. “I am a feminist” is what she meant to say.

I love women, and women love me. 

Is what she meant to say,

I love women and women love me.

I love all women,  

Yet I'm not loved by all women. 

Excluded from my own history due to the intersectionality of me, 

Replacing my words with yours to fit how you felt society should view me.

I am a feminist, 

I gave you a voice.

I already had one! 

I didn't speak with the intonation of pleasing anyone but myself. 

It wasn’t meant to be palatable, 

People needed to choke on my words.

But I am a feminist, 

Why must we choke when we all share the same slice of pie? 

We're fighting the same war, 

We share the same scars and tears cried.

We may have marched the same streets, 

Heard the same speech, 

But it was never to my choir that it was preached. 

I sang my own songs built from an experience, 

Unique to my skin and my sex, 

You turned my wisdom and worship into white noise.

But I am A feminist. 

I want equality for women, 

A better life for my children, 

I want to be free.

Your idea of freedom comes from the foot placed upon my neck by men, 

The same foot you use as leverage to try to see them eye to eye. 

Your feminism is a diluted version of mine,

Your feminism is what lavender is to purple, 

What silver is to gold, as you stand in your middle-class house made of glass, 

I can see what you call feminism does not have a plan for women who look like me. 

I can see what you call feminism does not have a plan for women who aren’t like you. 

To be a feminist is to be a box checked off on a list of demographics that still appeases men. I am not a feminist. 

I am black, and I am a woman. 

I will continue to love all women, even if they do not love me. 

I will continue to support all                        

And you are a feminist

And I am a feminist