Often times as a woman, I am faced with an interesting problem. I am loud--often called outspoken--and unafraid to speak my mind when I feel it counts the most. This can get me into trouble. This usually does get me in trouble, if I'm being honest. Imagine, a person with a vagina has opinions! How terrifying! All my life, I've been faced with men who would like to silence my opinions. I'm met with men who expect me--whether consciously or unconsciously, I'm not sure--to take up less space, so they can take up more. They use me, and my femininity, my intelligence, and my body, to inflate their own egos--to make themselves feel more important than they really are.

This poem is about how stupid this concept is to me. This poem is about being a woman, unapologetically, in a male-dominated space.

I'm Not Here For Your Ego

I am not here to make myself small

so you may feel large.

I am not here to step aside

so you may dominate the room.

I am not here to tear myself down

so you may build yourself up,

a monument to manliness

casting a shadow over my femininity.

I am as wild and fierce as the hurricanes that ravage the south.

I am as smart--

as well-versed--

as the men that surround me.

I am as strong as the women who came before me--

women who laid the foundation

for me to Be as I am today.

I am a storm--a force of nature--

not to be reckoned with.

So no

I will not make myself small

so you may feel large.

I will not let you dominate my space.

I am a person,

a human,

who exists for herself and no one else,

and especially not for you.