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Pink can be perfect

 

You remember watching the Barbie movie like it was yesterday, mainly because it was nothing like you expected while being everything you needed. It wasn’t perfect but if you squinted, it could be. It was made for women by women and was funny, thought provoking and above all, it made you really glad to be a woman.

There was solidarity in the theatre that day, almost everyone wearing a shade of pink or any other color that screamed Barbie. You laughed through the first part, were silent through the second part and got teary eyed during the last part. Barbie dolls were your childhood, but the Barbie movie made you feel seen even as a young woman who just wants to exist in a world where she’s allowed to breathe.

Everyone has a different idea of what it means to be a woman but instead of recognizing that there is no single way to exist as a woman, there are now hundreds of rules to live by. And most of those rules involve walking a very very thin line.

Womanhood is a spectrum, there are women who like doing stereotypically feminine things, women who don’t care much for them, women who like to wear makeup, women who don’t, women who obsess over picking out perfect fashionable outfits, women who feel at home in t shirts and sweats, women who want to rule the world, women who want to live in a small little apartment with their cats and a simple job that makes them happy, women who want to find their Ken, women who want to find their Barbie and women who want to find themselves.

It is definitely hard to exist as a woman in the current world, but it can also be genuinely fulfilling. Because for every person who doubts your ability to take control of your own life, there is a person who would go to war to ensure that you get to make your own choices. For every night you can’t walk out alone, there is a day filled with sightseeing and picnics with friends, for every snide comment about your outfit, there is a girl gushing over how incredible you look in that little black dress or that flowy knee length kurti, for every joke about your weight, there is someone who wishes she had a body exactly like yours, for every slur hurled at you for daring to live your life, there is someone defending your choices to anyone who will listen. For every flaw you see in yourself, there is a little girl who wants to grow up to be you.

Just like the Barbie movie, you’re not perfect by any means. You make mistakes, you screw up, you fall down but just like everyone else you get a chance to start over. The goal isn’t to be a girl boss who’s got everything under control all of the time, the goal is to be a woman, hopeful, strong, confident, and painfully human.  You’re not perfect but if you squint, you can be.   




For all the women who've made me the person I am

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