A teenage girl’s reaction to the election

I listen to girls in the school hallways as they hopefully talk about their grades, their college test scores, their eagerness to leave our progressive, liberal, all-girls school bubble; they will take up jobs they are more than qualified for and reach the top of the work force’s hierarchy.  

But then I turn on the television or listen to the radio and all of a sudden feel like I know a dark, unpleasant secret when I hear the drastically different voices of the rest America. The world outside of the bubble doesn’t see them as the fierce competitors they themselves as.  But who is telling our country that these girls can’t succeed? Our soon to be President, Donald Trump.

It’s infuriating that he has the audacity to say that a group of human beings are worthless: If women aren’t skinny, they’re pigs, dogs or slobs.  It doesn’t matter what they have to say as long as they’ve “got a young and beautiful piece of ass.”

In telling every female scientist, lawyer, doctor, artist, politician, that they should just stand still and look pretty, all he’s doing is regressing our world by hundreds of years.  If that’s your intention, Mr. Trump, congratulations.  You’ve just thwarted the future success of half of the population, which happens to consist of some of the world’s most intelligent and innovative thinkers.  You don’t think women’s achievements matter?  Then go ahead and denounce the thousands of feats the world has seen at the hands of women.

But more than angry, I’m scared.

What happens now?  While I worry about what will happen to hard-earned policies in government that are essentially the tip of a revolutionary iceberg, it’s not these laws I’m most concerned about.  It’s the tenacity these exceptional females exhibit around me that I wish I could etch in stone before it’s too late.  These girls question their male teachers. They sit in class and critique ancient philosophers and the founding fathers, pointing out holes in the judgment of the most revered men in history.

But what will happen to the drive inside these young women and their inquisitive thinking if they are told that challenging men means they have “blood coming out of everywhere?”  Or to their confidence and ambition as they hear that their value gets lower as the weight on their scales gets higher?

I want to remind these young women what seems most important in this fight for equality — as scared as we may be of the prejudiced people who will soon hold power, they are more scared of us.  Our intellect undermines them. Strong, intelligent women are capable of achieving so much that they know these women are a threat to their authority as we are able to surpass them.

So while they continue to put us down and try to limit our rights, don’t bury your valor in fear of being told that makes you undesirable. Fight for your rights and never stop pushing the envelope.  There is nothing more beautiful in this world than a woman who knows how to be little nasty.

Erica Dick is in the 11th grade at Archer School for Girls.