There’s Nothing Wrong With Being An Angry Feminist

People say they think all feminists are angry

Like it’s a bad thing

As if it’s invalid in some way shape or form

I’m 11 years old and my male teacher is creeping on little girls that are his students

Locking them in classrooms while he keeps them after for detention where no wrong was done

With a look in his eyes like they have something he wants to take from them

I’m 23 and having glass smashed around me on a regular basis

Anger and rage swirling throughout the household in tornadoes of yelling

My spirit feeling annihilated into a sense of nothingness and brokenness from the verbal battlegrounds

I’m 25 and waking up from sex that I did not consent to with no memory of what happened

Just a vagina that aches with an excruciating reminder of the boundary violation that happened while I was unconscious

“Don’t be an angry feminist”, they say

“It’s not a good look”, they say

“You’ll never find love that way”, they say

Condescension so clearly in their tone

As they make it clear that swallowing these injustices Injustices that women face every single day

To greater or lesser degrees

Are better to be swallowed than to be spoken

As if fighting for women’s rights and equality

With honest voices

That ring true to our emotion

Isn’t worthwhile

Or necessary

Because anger isn’t pretty, nice, or comfortable for people to stomach

You tell me not to be so angry when rape is sitting right in my lap

You tell me not to be so angry when I’m getting stalked by men in my hometown

You tell me not to be so angry when I can’t walk down the street without getting eye-fucked by every male passerby

Do you realize that more women than not will be raped in their lifetime?

Do you realize that more women than not will be physically assaulted by a man in their lifetime?

Do you realize that more women than not will swallow their abuse in their lifetime, because insensitive voices like yours are telling them to be quiet?

Every ounce of women’s anger is valid

Our anger is righteous

It’s worthy

Groundbreaking

World-changing

And instead of trying to silence her righteous rage next time

Just to maintain your narrow comfort zone

Consider shutting the fuck up and listening instead

We cannot and we will not be silenced.