I’m sorry if I disappointed you
I’m sorry if I am not “not like other
girls”,
I’m sorry if my moustache and peach fuzz made you uncomfortable or if you had to see hair grow wild and free on my
limbs, while you grew up thinking women were shiny hairless porcelain dolls.
I’m sorry I laughed at your face when
you said you stood for “gender equality” through “humanism”, just not feminism.
I’m sorry I didn’t solve world
hunger, climate crisis and the reign of ISIS before I demanded equal pay for
equal work.
I’m sorry if I complained about
having to prove my worth over and over in the hope that one day the assumptions
about how a gender fares in a job will come to an end.
I’m sorry that I don’t make the
disclaimer “I’m not a feminist” before I tell you what I really feel about your
casual sexism.
I’m sorry that I “couldn’t take a
joke” you made about a woman “riding” up the ranks
I’m sorry if I don’t add “not all
men”, as I call out constitutionally provisioned rape in domestic space
I’m sorry if my make up is too much,
while all that really itches you is that I couldn’t pull off the “no makeup -
makeup” look
I’m sorry that I spend an hour
dolling up in the morning for myself and not you, I apologise profusely for how
much that hurts your ego
I’m sorry I had an opinion about
something you said or did on social media. Now I have a swarm of sexually
frustrated men leaving rape threats for me and my family in my inbox.
I’m sorry if my ripped jeans worry
you about the future of this country. Of course, it is only reasonable that
women stay indoors, pallus over their heads, far away from mobile phones,
condom ads, western culture, and chowmein, lest they be “defiled and
dishonoured” by a man who couldn’t keep it in his pants, a poor man you keep
making excuses for.
But what I am really sorry is that in a fight where we could have been allies, you keep choosing to be an obstacle, or a bystander at best.
