I am a scientist.
I am a butcher.
I am a gamer.
I am a tomboy.
I am a person who doesn’t suffer fools.
I am erudite.
I am no nonsense.
I am tough.
I am talented.
I am ambitious.
I am a provider.

I am not a princess.
I am not a girly-girl.
I am not a wife.
I am not a mother.
I am not a woman who likes other women very much.

I am an anti-feminist.

This must change. It must. I have been shown what I am, who I have become, the wake I leave as I move through the world discounting the women around me and performing for the patriarchy in a desperate bid for approval. I am playing a game I cannot win and I am creating a player I don’t even like anymore.

I will become an activist. A womanist. A feminist. Someone who knows what true gender equality looks like, sounds like, smells like. I will recognize it and I will laud it and where it does not exist I will work for it.

It must be done.