At age 13 I was asked by my mother if I was a feminist. Since I had no real education on the meaning of the word Feminism, I told her I couldn't give a real answer for the reason I just provided. So I decided to look back at one of my favorite songs. "***Flawless (featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi)" by Beyonce. There is a short interlude taken from a speech given by Ms. Adichi where she says:
"We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller
We say to girls: 'You can have ambition, but not too much
You should aim to be successful, but not too successful
Otherwise, you will threaten the man'"
we all know the part. she goes on to define feminism as:
"a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes."
The song continues with beyonce basically telling you that you are flawless and you deserve flawless things. This is amazing, but if you didn't know you were flawless, please do find the nearest mirror, and take a long look until you finally see your perfections. If you can't find any perfections, try your best to see beauty in what you may consider to be a flaw.
Beyonce was later criticized for being labeled as a feminist although in the intro to "***Flawless" Beyonce is telling females to bow down, and aside from that, the clothes she wears are "inappropriate" and "she's not covering enough" and sure you may think all this to be true, but here's the issue:
Why is self appreciation taken as being conceited? As children, we are taught to just be yourself, and to not care about what other people think of you. However in today's society we have 11-15 year olds posting #cutting posts and #anamia posts *ana is short for anorexia, mia for bulimia* and they post such things because they aren't happy with themselves. Is this because they are being told they aren't pretty enough? maybe, but who is to blame? How about the males who look at girls as objects just for sexual pleasure, and decent meals? That's not my purpose for being here today, I can address that at a later time. I am here on this day to speak on Self appreciation and why women, especially African American women, are looked down upon when they realize and express publicly their inner and outer beauty. African American women are constantly bashed for the wonderful works they do. So what Beyonce said bow down? That is her way of saying "hey! I've done my part, i've worked hard, so you need to respect me." Even saying things like "Black Girls are Magic" is an issue. Why? Why, as african american women in today's culture, are we not allowed to say that we are special, and magical without getting backlash? Would it make you feel a lot more comfortable if I said all people in general are magic? and if so, why can't us black girls have just one moment, or even a shred of pride in ourselves? We cannot even take a moment for ourselves to talk about us without being called selfish. It's a shame. How dare you try to take our right to take a look at ourselves and say out loud to everyone else "I'm black and I think I look good." and at age 14 I sit here gladly as I type this because as a young african american girl in today's society, I would like to tell anyone who disagrees with me that someone out there in the world cares about your opinion on my piece, but it's not me. I am here on this earth to say I am black, and I am beautiful, magical, and all the above. so bow down to that.
