02/25/2024
THIS ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
Recently a well known celebrity had a moment on camera and although it was a brief moment, so many women caught it.
Because it was a moment we all could relate to with her.
When she noticed the camera had zoomed in on her and had held her in frame, she stopped what she was doing and stood there.
She didn’t smile to make anyone happy.
She didn’t fake any pleasantries to make it comfortable.
She didn’t wave and make it ok.
Instead she just stood there.
Silent.
No smile.
Jaw set.
And waited.
And waited some more.
Then, she appeared to say flatly to the person holding the camera lens on her, “Go away, please.”
And in that moment, so many of us felt those three words deep inside our core.
“Go away, please.”
So many of us have wanted to scream those three words so many times in our lives:
To the pressures society places on all of us.
To the pressures we place on each other.
To the pressures we place on ourselves.
To the pressure to be pretty but act to like you aren’t,
because women aren’t supposed to be too confident.
To the pressure to be smart but not be smarter than others,
because that might hurt someone’s feelings.
To the pressure to be bold but not be too loud,
because you don’t want to be called a bitch.
To the pressure to have the perfect body but also make sure we don’t show it,
because then we are just asking for it.
To the pressure to smile and be polite even if we don’t want someone to buy us a drink or sit with us uninvited at a coffee shop or whistle at us on the street,
because they don’t deserve to be rejected.
To the pressure to work hard but don’t be too focused on our careers,
because our primary job as women is to be a mom.
To the pressure to be good parents but don’t be too focused on our children,
because we need to be independent women.
To the anxiety we are borrowing from the future.
To the negative inner voice that keeps trying to knock us down.
To the regrets about things we cannot change.
To all the things that deplete us of our energy, our hope, our self worth.
Maybe today is a good day to look all those things square in the eye,
silently stare them down,
wipe the fake smiles from our face,
set our jaw,
and shout,
“Go away, please.”
Maybe it’s time to focus on living the life we want to live instead of the life others expect of us.
