I am midway through my point in a debate
when chauvinism interrupts and shouts
feminist
like it is meant to be an insult
I push my glasses up on the bridge of my nose and keep talking.
He shouts again, telling me
you want all men to die
I push past and finish my point anyway.
And his words ring of everything I will keep fighting against

The day I became a woman was when prejudice whispered
you are not worth anything
you will never be worth anything
if you can’t have a decent body
And those words smacked of privilege and arrogance and everything I did not want to be

I am eight years old when sexual harassment puts its palm to my face and says
you are so beautiful it is a shame
your father must be so ugly
And his words sounded like 332 female gymnasts,
80 women in the film industry,
And 17 with their skeletons in a White House closet
And every reason I cannot be silenced.