What is a Woman?

What is a woman?

This image is often defined for us through the actions of our mothers, grandmother, and all the other women that influence our lives.

Often in society, our images are boxed into the Bible front cover magazines, we are told by Christianity to be the Proverbs 31 woman.

As a Zulu girl, I grew being told ukuthi intombazane mayiziphathe kahle

With sermons preaching that we should never have a (boy)friend

Dating was simply an unfathomable scene

Losing your virginity equates to losing your dignity

Even in some rape cases, it was questions of what did you do to get it?

We were raised by matriarchs who bowed down to men and I guess it was then when I understood that if the lioness doesn't learn to write her own story, the hunter will always be glorified

And at my young age, I've already made that mistake a couple of times, I guess somehow I'm still a carbon copy of my bloodline

I'm sure you've already heard it through the grapevine.

What is a woman?

Too many times we have been told what not to be rather than what we should be

We've allowed the male gaze to contradictorily define what is a woman

"Maybe I should look like a stripper

Wearing Fashion Nova dresses

While these dudes are so pressed and impressed with it,"

Isn't it sad, how we've learned to define our beauty by the validation of someone else's son?

What is a woman?

Should she be silent or be a siren

Our actions have been tailored by media and our society and they have designed costumes for us to wear,

I truly think we've just been characters our whole lives.

What is a woman?

Is she defined by the width of her hips or the beauty of her mind

Is her womanhood only verified with a child

Are her hands only worth holding pots and pans

And taking care of a man.

What if she desires to take care of a woman?

What if she only wants to take care of herself?

Allow us to be women

May we see the beauty of our spines that remind us where we come from

See our heads rise like blooming buds that are as beautiful as flowers of Eden

May we not just be skeletal but be living beings, as free as the universe.

May we be freely allowed to define ourselves.

What is a woman?