16-Year-Old Feminist Pens Moving Message For Future Daughter (Guest Post)

Zoe Cicatelli is a 16-year-old feminist. She is the daughter of a dear friend. I asked for her opinion of a novel I am working on about a teen who chooses to have an abortion. Our conversations revealed that this young woman is very intelligent and savvy.

She penned this piece and sent it to me. It is posted with Zoe’s, and her father’s, permission.

It’s rather intense but it gives us a peek inside the mind of a young person/girl/feminist in today’s America.

I have only made minor changes.

If you would like to support Zoe, please like her Facebook page: Cypress Woods Feminism

Daphne

If I ever have a daughter,

I would name her Daphne.

I would fill her up with what I have left of

my own purity

and try to keep the demons

of society away from her.

I would teach her how beautiful her soul is

and how much it mattered.

I would never emphasize the beauty of her face

because I know she would fall

into the trap

that all of us do.

I would put down my makeup

my dresses and high heels

for her.

I would make sure she had no idea

why some people thought

the color of your skin

determined your worth,

or why some men thought

women were less

than they were,

or why some people

could not get married

to the ones they loved.

I would teach her of love, goodness, justice, and truth.

I would cry the day she noticed

society’s evils.

I would cry realizing I

could never

protect her from

everything that could hurt the goodness

that she held so deep within.

I would cry out of frustration

that I had because

my daughter would be killed from the inside out.

She would go through the same

f*cked up existence that

all girls go through.

That I went through.

I would cry knowing how much pain she would feel in her whole goddamned life.

She would feel that misplaced sense of guilt

as early as

seven-years-old

The guilt would take hold of her

in second grade perhaps

when her teacher tells her that her

shorts are too short,

and my darling Daphne would feel a

pang in her stomach and

her cheeks would turn red

and she would not know what was wrong with her shorts why they were too short what too short even meant why this is happening why is everyone looking at me why are they laughing at me

And this

guilt

will continue throughout her entire existence

It’ll continue when she is twelve-years-old and

her silly little boyfriend tries to kiss her

but she doesn’t feel ready

except she pushes that away

she pushes that deep down inside of her and does what this stupid boy wants her to do because it’s COOL and she’s not a prude and her friends would laugh at her and the boys at school would tease her for not putting out and everything would be solved if she just ignored how uncomfortable she felt right in that very moment

and my sweet Daphne would kiss this boy and

not understand why

she felt so uncomfortable.

It’ll continue when she’s 17-years-old and she

gets pregnant because

she was raped

by her best friend

raped by someone

who she had known since she was four-f*cking-years-old.

Because the “friendzone” is a thing

because she was drunk

and even though she said no

he hit her hard

as hard as he could

and did not care that she was screaming for her f*cking life

for her mother f*cking dignity no he didn’t care because he was very angry that my daughter Daphne didn’t want to have sex with him he was so angry that he punched her in the face and held her down and shoved himself inside of her and she was crying and she was screaming but she couldn’t move and she was so drunk that eventually she threw up and when he left she was bleeding on the floor and

the looks that she would get at school

are looks of disgust

because

it was

her fault

wasn’t it?

She should’ve just had sex with the guy. I mean it wasn’t a big deal it’s just sex and God she’s such a whore anyway haha one more guy wouldn’t have mattered right ugh and I feel so bad for him too his whole life is gonna get ruined just because she couldn’t take a little dick.

If I ever have a daughter

I would name her Daphne.

-ZC

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