Misogyny and sexism – the purgatory that define women and girls is far too ingrained for comprehension. Unless you are a woman or a girl. The shame, blame and pain we are burdened to carry and combat in the silence of this desperation – these years of life we are denied, just for simply having been born with a vagina than a penis. Even more sinister was the day they were simultaneously codified in religious ideologies, forever ensuring our rights and dignity are shrouded behind the servitude to Patriarchy.

Even before we are conceived, society has an expectation of female sexual modesty to feminine behaviour as to convenient male egotism – which is proudly championed in language itself as the definition of bravery, strength and intellect – all the while quivering and crumbling at the sight of a female presence and thus enforcing women and girls to hide or mute ourselves out of society. We are synonymous to weakness. They are synonymous to greatness.

We are told to keep our head down, our mouth shut and legs closed. We are taught to accept all the blame and shame and pain inflicted on our body and spirit. The inadequacy of heterosexual male restraint is our fault, we are told, and that is why we must submit to every accusation patriarchy has at its disposal. And god forbid if we question it – no, literally – god forbid dare we rise up and say “what the actual f***?” Now we have to face the eternal disapproval of someone who will burn us by the hair or give us eternal bad karma and make us be reborn as female and never being able to reach meaningful potential in life...

Females contribute the majority percentage to life itself. It is from the female parent the child obtains most of their DNA. And it is the female who contributes 99.9% of the time to pregnancy, labour and childrearing, minus the fringe minority of progressive males who step up and do take on parenting duties. Yet it is males who take credit for all the benefits of life and stigmatize females and femininity to something that epitomizes negativity and weakness when reality contradicts that narrative. Haven’t you ever heard “it takes two to tango”? Yet cooperation is expected only from females, while males get to carry on with the duty of boys being boys.

Females are the weakest link, we are told, repeatedly, at every turn, every stop, in every new front. Yet it is females who graduate with the highest grades in school, but must perform double or triple the duty or effort to earn the same wage and respect as males for the same work and/or achievement. Take Clinton vs Trump – a woman who is qualified for POTUS was dismissed over her emails, while a man who boasted about sexually assaulting women, was caught on video perving on a little girl, walks in unannounced into Miss Universe change rooms, knowing women are exposed and vulnerable there and has some “unpresidented” grammar issues alongside political obliviousness, is elected POTUS based on exactly what qualification…? Don’t even get me started with the STEM world and its treatment of female scientists. Even the “intellectual” world defined Science with a penis.

Ridiculing men as female is the worst insult to someone. And many atheists and “intellectual” community agree. They hurl insults at men that ultimately denigrate females and transwomen. They complain about Islamic misogyny yet eagerly rejoice at dogpiling on feminists. They complain about the misuse of certain words like “sexist” and “racist” yet outrage when gender pronouns are discussed and sexist terminology are criticized for their negative impact on society and individuals. For every closeted misogynist and sexist, language only matters when their privileges are challenged or pointed out.

To this day, there hasn’t been a right exercised by women, girls and the transgender community that was just “handed down” to them. We had to fight for every right in social, economic and political growth. Feminism is the longest running protest that has not resulted in mass murder or riots. Even when our community members are raped, molested and/or murdered, we use civility to demand rights and respect to live with dignity. Yet we are also accused of being emotionally unstable for not nicely telling patriarchy to f*** off. We are expected to show gratitude to the very system that dehumanizes us and is responsible for thousands of years of oppression and violence against us.

And still we survive. We persevere. Having been gaslighted since the dawn of civilization has its obvious levels of indoctrinated self-blame and hate – but we are making strides. We will be heard. We will continue to be strong. We will lose many of our members to misogynistic and sexist violence in this course. But those who survive will carry their memories with us. We will remind the world of the people who were denied their life – but their voice will be heard for as long as the universe keeps expanding.

We are the 50% of the population. You owe your life to us – no seriously, bruh, you do. You are a fraction more your mother’s DNA just like the next Jack who thinks women and girls are inferior to men and boys. We are biologically engineered to be the majority even in male DNA, yet we aren’t asking for majority; we are asking for equality. Get used to it. If you don’t like biological references, then quit using male biology to justify heterosexual male abuse on society. Your testosterone doesn’t excuse the wars, rapes and other systemic abuses which privilege males. Otherwise, females too have an actual scientific justification to claim superiority.

It would be ­nothing without a woman or a girl. Nothing. And that line would be so much more sincere if it didn’t come from a man who beat the crap out of two of his wives. So give peace a chance – err – that too… he beat two of his wives too… and of course, nobody respects women more than Trump, leader of the Land of the Free – wait a minute, something’s wrong here. Have you guessed the common theme?

Despite all the impediments placed by Patriarchy and its adherents; feminists have established change and will continue moving in a positive direction to social reform and thus the advancement of the human race, together as people of an inclusive society. We have the capacity to unite and coexist without abuse. That would mean forgoing Patriarchy.

To all the women and men who prioritize human decency and equality above the medieval notion that a penis means everything, happy International Women’s Day! We will fiercely pursue human rights and dignity for all people, without an apology.