My mum said I looked like a toddler because I wear butterfly clips.
What she said sparked fury unlike I’ve ever experienced before.
How dare a child enjoy being a child?
How dare she decorate her thick and strong hair with colourful butterflies, replicating Mother Earth’s self-decoration?
How dare she not dress for her peer’s approval, but for her own empowerment, contentment and self-expression?
How dare she choose to cherish her youth, and reject the male gaze?
For a woman to shame another for reclaiming her joy is a betrayal unlike any other, and a cowardly one at that.
I support all my sisters and brothers to dress however they please, to choose the decoration that sparks joy for them, and solely for them.
As controversial as this may be, I most definitely think my generation is over-sexualised, expected to act and look as if they’re in their early 20’s when they really have the emotional maturity of a peanut. To go to raves and get embarrassingly drunk when they still haven't gotten their L's yet. It's okay to dress up like a child because you really still are a child.
I still adore bronzer and shirts with low necklines and shocking dresses as much as I do braiding my hair and sparkly scrunchies.
Isn’t the whole point of adolescence to enjoy both the fruits of adulthood and candy of childhood?
I hope my 30-year-old self still occasionally wears the odd butterfly clip or two, to honour her Inner Child and to be constantly reminded that life really isn’t all that serious. And girls really do just wanna have fun (and not be objectified.)
Because it is absolutely outrageous when a woman begins to dress not for the enjoyment of men and to feed their hungry gaze, but for the enjoyment of herself.
I’m doing a rainbow butterfly clip look tomorrow for school, inspired by my mother’s kind words! xo
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