A World without a Woman

Rebecca Charnock
Mar 9, 2017
3 min read

Could you imagine, another world, without a woman or a girl.

It would be like the night sky, without a single star in sight.

No Sun to shine a single ray,

No Women to give us life today.

You see a world without a woman is like an ocean without water, non-existent. Because if that doesn’t exist, well then neither do you, neither do I.

With everything I do I think about my mother, and my grandmother and her mother and grandmother, and I stop and take a moment to say thank you. Thank you for me.

Thank you for carrying me for 9 long months, for eating for two even when your wage could only allow you to afford food for one.

For putting me in school at the age of 3, for allowing me time to learn, even if you knew I’d get pushed to the back of the line come the time I applied for a job.

Thank you, for not sticking a tutu on me at the age of 5, for allowing me to choose whether or not I was into ballet or playing road hockey. Thank you for allowing me to choose both.

For not questioning my sexuality at the age of 7 when I told you I loved playing with bay blades instead of Barbie’s, thank you for taking me beyond the pink and glittered isles at toys r us.

Thank you for my brothers, and for teaching them it’s okay to like to sing and dance. That it’s OK for them to be good at it.

That it’s OK for me to be better then them at something in life. That it doesn’t make them any less of a man. That it doesn’t make them any less of a human being.

Thank you, for teaching me at the age of 13 that I should use my voice where and when I felt appropriate. I’ll repeat, where I felt it was appropriate, nobody else.

“I’m not sorry, did the middle of my sentence interrupt the beginning of yours? I didn't think so."

Mom, thank you. For making sure that by a young age I would respect my own body. For teaching me that I should own every curve on my body, to know that these mountains and plains on my road map belong to nobody else. Thank you for showing me I need not give them directions. They should already know the way.

Thank you, for teaching me at the age of 17 that cat calling wasn’t a thing because I had a pussy, but because those who cat called, were raised by dogs. That those who cat called disobeyed human decency.

At the age of 19 I wasn’t confused when a man thought that because I smiled in his direction that meant we were going home together?

That, that meant, yes… Because no, it means no. Until I make a decision, whatever I decide, is where MY body will go.

So thank you mom for all that you’ve done, after so many years I’m now 21.

I can’t imagine a world without you by my side to teach me the ways of both wrong and right.

So as I end this poem I hope I leave with you today. A message to keep on trying for the woman of yesterday.