the 'what about's

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when you speak about feminism
they like to hit you with things
i call 'what about's–
what about women in the middle east
what about women in third world countries
what about focusing on them and not the problems here

and this all sounds good in theory
yes
we need to help them
yes
we need to help young girls
trapped in child marriages
yes
we need to help women
marred by acid attacks
yes
we need to help victims
of human trafficking
yes
we need to help women
who will be imprisoned
beaten
killed
for speaking out about their sexual assault
for getting an abortion
for leaving an abusive husband

yes
we need to help them
of course we do
it is our job as decent humans
to help them

but we can help them
and help ourselves at the same time

we can help young girls
in child marriages

and we can fight to end
the objectification of young girls
here

we can help women
marred by acid attacks

and we can work harder
to arrest abusers and assailants
here

we can help victims
of human trafficking

and we can stop stigma and violence
against sex workers
here

we can help women
who will be
imprisoned for speaking out about their sexual assault
beaten for getting an abortion
killed for leaving an abusive husband

and we can also help women
who will be
imprisoned for killing their pimp and captor
beaten for refusing to have sex
killed for rejecting a man
here

because terrible things still happen
here

women are still getting hurt
here

there is still not total equality
here

they say
what about this
what about that
what about them

i say
well
what about
here

they say nothing
because that they mean
when they say
what about the middle east
what about third world countries
what about them

is

what about sitting down
what about shutting up
what about not saying anything
at all
                          -c.h.

~

one of my favorite feminist pieces! let me know what you think!

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