I’m not going to play the victim

As a young girl in the eighties, I had the freedom to be who I wanted to be. I wasn’t taught to considered myself as a victim. Instead, my small school preached equality and self-confidence over anything else. I always knew that I’d be able to achieve whatever I put the work into. 

As a teenager obsessed with music, I devoured the latest releases by women like Neneh Cherry, PJ Harvey, Salt-n-Pepa, Missy Elliot, and Courtney Love. To me, they lived free of constraints – and they crashed through gender stereotypes to dress, sing, and act however the hell they wanted. Those women showed me that I had power. All the positivity and equality from childhood teachings expanded into a knowledge that as a woman I am held back…