A Message to Girls About Their Bodies
Ten Declarations for Girls to Live By
1. If you feel distress, know that your body is not the problem. Hiding, binding, or removing your breasts will not solve your distress.
2. Do not believe that taking drugs and cross-sex hormones will make you better or more authentic than you are right now. There is no need to pretend to be someone else; you are good enough and lovable just as you are. Be brave and be yourself.
3. You were born in the right body. Learn to be friends with your body. Do not turn against your body; it is your ally and needs your protection.
4. Your natural body and health will not work well if tampered with. Treat your body with care and respect. Good health is priceless, so guard your body and preserve your health.
5. Do not become chained with dependency on industries or ideologies that wish to control, use, and profit from you for life. Reclaim your own life and autonomy today because in the decades to come, you are likely to regret losing yourself and your natural body to those entities.
6. Strangers and online influencers are not your friends and rarely have your future health and well-being in mind. Do not listen to people who advocate that you should alter or modify your body. You cannot count on them to support you. They will disappear if you don’t follow their ideology, and if you ever question their ideas or pathway, they will strike out against you.
7. Becoming a woman, and possibly a mother, is a great honor. Do not betray or abandon your unique femininity and sisterhood with other women. Embrace it with your own style and personality as you move toward this special opportunity to shine bright, gay or straight, as a powerful woman.
8. Do not give away your power to others who are promoting radical ideas and barely know you. You and your body deserve better.
9. Hone your critical thinking skills and adaptive coping strategies for long-term resilience, sound mental health, and success in life.
10. Do not turn your back on your family, especially your mother, grandmother, and the female mentors and matriarchs who came before you. Treat your heritage with respect. Let your ancestors be proud of you.
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This is wonderful! Great idea, and beautifully written.
I would add, "If you don't perfectly fit all the sex-role stereotypes for your sex, or don't want to, you are healthy and normal. No one fits all of those, because they're just stereotypes. Gender identity ideology says, "Believe the stereotypes. Reject your sex. Alter your body." Gender-critical feminism says, "Reject the stereotypes. Accept your sex. Honor your body." Actually, I have better, more concise wording for that. I'll post it here later.
Anyway, I would love to order 1000 business cards with this, or, second best, have a pdf of this for printing on both sides of a business card to hand out, pin on bulletin boards, stick in library books, or put some in those Little Free Library boxes around town.
Also, it would be lovely to have hand-bill sized posters girls could put up in their rooms, or full-sized posters of this. Framed. Imagine what a great conversation starter this would be if a full size poster of this were hung up in a college dorm room?*
Judt as it is written.
Beautiful work.
Are there any websites for reaching out to girls about this, perhaps done with girls who write gender-critucal content? And perhaps gave a safe, moderated forum or Q and A answered by gender-critical adults?
Perfectly spelled out. Made me think of the Dr. Suess quote
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” Dr Suess.