To the Woman Who Got it Wrong by Gabrielle Gousman

Dear Woman,

What is your problem?

Who taught you that your only purpose

Is to please ‘the Man’?

Was it your mother and her mother before her?

Were you brainwashed by society?

Or maybe you learned from all the men in your life.

Dear Woman,

Who told you you only matter when you look ‘attractive’?

That you can only be heard with your clothes off?

That your privates are the best part of you?

Dear Woman,

Who taught you to be seen and not heard?

To shrink into yourself until you’re almost not there at all?

Who taught you not to take up His space too much?

Dear Woman,

Who taught you not to love yourself?

Who taught you not to take solidarity in other women?

That loving another woman, even loving yourself,

Is wrong.

I was taught that He is the problem.

That Man is the enemy and Women are saviors.

I was taught by the women before me.

I was taught Sisterhood,

Self-love,

Love of woman kind.

I was taught the bitterness of a woman to a man.

Dear Woman,

Which one of us got it wrong?