Yandy's Entry - What can one do?

 

Yandy's Entry - What can one do?

'We’re women; our choices are never easy.'

-Ruth DeWitt Bukater

        ‘What can one do?’ A phrase from the short story The Yellow Wallpaper that keeps on echoing in my mind while watching Titanic and keeps on reminding me how helpless women are. The movie shows different mistreatments of women and how they are viewed as normal. Rose was seen as a rebel, as disobeyed her mother's wishes into marrying a man that she did not love. She needed a man to be recognized and stay in their social class. Although it happened in the early 1900s, when discrimination against women was rampant, it is still seen in our society today, where inequity against women is still normalized. But how long do we have to keep up with this prejudice against women? How long will people think that I am powerless without a man?

        "It's so unfair" A phrase that Rose said in response to her mother's words. A phrase that I keep on telling my grandmother is that she let my cousins, who are boys, ride a bike, and I couldn’t because it was not ladylike, and that I should just ride at the back and let my cousins control the bike, and so I did. At that time, I felt so helpless that I cried at my mother, like, why can't I ride a bike, and why can't I control the bike and head where I want to go. Her response was just ‘it's just the way things go’. There was also a time when I was so conscious of my body. In 5th grade, my classmates teased the way my upper body looked, saying that it was too large and inappropriate, and made sexual jokes about a 5th grader. When I told my teacher about it, she just said that boys will be boys and I should just ignore it and it will pass. She was right. it did pass. My classmate stopped teasing me, but it left a huge scar, and I began to question my body, asking, ‘Why do I look like this? Should I look like this? My perception of myself began to worsen as I viewed myself as unvalued and not deserving of any attention.

        Things changed when I got older, became exposed to other beliefs. Learned that what I felt as a child was valid. It is okay to speak up whenever you feel like it. You are valid, even if it is about small or huge things. If anything bothers you, whether it is about riding a bike or having a large upper body, I can and will ride a bike; I am in control of my own steering wheel; I am a woman in charge of my own body; and I can tell if something is enough.

        I'm a woman, and I do have the same choices as a man. I'm in control of what I can and cannot do. I am capable of making a place in society without the help of a man. We women have the ability to change society's perception of us because I am a woman, and I can do all the things a man can.