A Letter To All Women

• Amanda Ong, Grade 12, Hurlstone Agricultural High School -
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

To the women who were forced to stand silent, against the wave of responsibility and expectation you were forced to ride; I’m sorry.
This is in no way in my hands, at my fault, but I am apologising on behalf of the society I live in.
When a man touched you like that, ran his hands over your thighs at the dinner table without your consent, you laughed it off or just ignored it even though his palms were sweaty and the slowly ascending motions made you sick.
When he reached for your panty line, you told him to stop, under your breath, so your family wouldn’t have to hear and you wouldn’t cause a scene.
To the girls who walk home alone at night with their keys clutched tightly between their shaking fists, who are aware a simple ‘no’ will not be taken seriously. I am aware that every day we go to school and certain parts of our bodies are placed on blacklist: bare shoulders, midriffs, thighs - we are forced to regulate parts of who we are for fear that boys will become distracted.
There are so many things wrong here, slow undercurrents, swirling beneath society’s surface, taking more and more of us every day. It comes with every celebrity who uses their voice on a universal platform, the courage to say clearly, ‘Me, too.’ To take comfort in a hashtag, to look around at all the women in our lives we'd never realised carried bruises beneath their makeup - oh God, I am so sorry, for our loss and our scars… We should not teach our boys to tease and attack, and in the same sentence allow them to mask such acts as attraction; ‘boys will be boys’ and ‘men will be men’ are one of the most dangerous cover-ups of crime ever to be committed.
To teach that is to simultaneously tell your daughter ‘when he beats you, it’s a form of love,’ and ‘when he pulls your hair and makes you cry, he’s showing his devotion.’ There is no need for anyone to think like that, least of us young girls - there are astronauts, scientists and soldiers among us, and their wars have not yet been won.
To the women in my life, I only speak for me - but I look you all deep in the eye, and turn to every single boy or man who has hurt you, and speak only this:
These women are your mothers, and daughters, and sisters and cousins. You were born from their bodies, you carry their blood in your veins. Do not forget who you speak for. Without them, you would not be here, without them you would not walk, or talk, or breathe, or wear clothing upon your backs, or have food in your mouths.
Speak very carefully. Walk treacherous paths. Lower your voice once in a while.
Only then will you understand what it is like to be a woman.
Signed,
Amanda