Every girl or woman has been afraid of the dark.
Maybe they were talking about reality, but maybe they were talking figuratively.
They’re talking about what’s hiding in it.
Monsters from the deep,
In dark hallways or withered staircases, they reap.
But the dark has worse things to offer.
Every girl and woman has feared that fact.
I understand that what I will be talking about may be uncomfortable.
But if it does give you that feeling,
Means you also have been afraid of the dark.
Men and girls, that’s how some people see us.
This is something we must discuss.
Let me tell you a story.
I walked home after my job, the time was 8 o’clock.
Then I walked past a few guys.
They had the look on them.
I feared them when I looked into their eyes.
I reached for my car keys when they walked by.
Looking back now I don’t think they would have done anything.
But I was in the moment. And I was afraid to pry.
That story may have not been mine,
But that does not mean that that feeling of insecurity and fear should ever be fine.
I know that this instinct to protect myself, is driven from concern of this becoming true.
That every girl, old or young, that is what every single one of them went through.
Now tell me, what do you know about feminism?
The dictionary tells us that it’s about advocating women’s rights
Maya Angelou, Jane Austin and Virgina Woolf all included those in their writes.
It started out years ago demanding for equal rights, not caring whether they were acting nice
or ladylike, women around the world fought just for equal rights.
All they wanted was that. Was it so bad to ask?
Ask to vote, to help change, to help something that they believed in?
They got it. Legally at least.
It started in our country, but soon that right was spread west to the east.
That was feminism.
But times have changed. Now, people associate that word with something that they shouldn’t.
They call it toxic.
When a woman says she’s a feminist, men look at her like she spoke of the devil.
But those men don’t know that feminism was made to protect those girls.
It gives us a reason to fight, to fight those of them that look at us like belongings such as shiny pearls.
But feminism has come a long way, it’s shifted with the times, as good things do.
I was thankful to have grown up with the idea of equal rights, and I hope the same thing happens with you.
I used to think we had total equality among the sexes.
But hints of sexism are shown through the cracks, such as disregard of women in the workplace.
I feel sexism is still alive, as shown in examples above, and we already have the answer.
So when it comes to push and shove, I believe feminism is for everyone.
That is equal rights. That, is for everyone’s daughter and son.
The person next to me asked ‘Why did you write this speech?’
Because of a someone.
I went to Stanhope Road Primary and Intermediate. You don’t know where that school is.
It was small, so I knew everyone. Especially this one girl, she was one to stun.
She would stun everyone with her ideas, I was glad to call her my friend.
She picked the topic of feminism for her speech.
And guess what? She stunned everyone with her poem called ‘Her’
She talked about the fear all girls go through, and other horrid things that occur.
I remember her. Mainly because of that and how she commanded that room.
She did it for her, and now, I shall too.
Cossar Salesa-Lee, Year 10
