The Woman - IWD

 Dear Individual,

Do you remember how as a child you looked forward to growing older, and even as you grew into an adult and realized it was a scam, you knew things won't always be bad and dared to hope.

Well, what if someone told you that your value as an individual was reducing as those processes were taking place. The audacity of the stupidity of humans, yeah?

Interestingly, this has become the reality that women have had to face. How? Hold my glass, let me explain.

Sexual Market Value, that is what it is called. It is the phenomenon that after thirty years, the value of the woman decreases majorly; this is because it is believed that her fertility starts to play "suwe" and she is not as sexually appealing as she was in her 20s.

While it might seem like I am taking sides (which I am, lol). Let's see why sexual Market Value is a thing. To those who believe in it:

1. Women are considered majorly to be sexual creatures, attractive based on physical feautures and kept to procreate and "promote the family name". 

2. Women shouldn't be too ambitious. You see while the man can spend all of his time trying to make a name for himself without thinking of a family, how dare a woman of the same age be less of a multitasker; not finding a way to make her own money so she can stop being a "gold digger", marry early enough and have kids early enough.

But here's what you should know

Isn't sexual Market Value at the root of everything that women have always spoken against? Doesn't it prove that when they have screamed that they were more than their bodies, objects of sexual pleasure and their ability to procreate, they weren't just attention seekers?

Doesn't it prove more of the nature of the world and it harshness to the female gender to think that a man at 30 maintains a higher value than he had at 20, while a woman at 30 is expired?

Here's my point, what one generation endorses silently becomes the pattern the coming generation enforces, if we let it be a thing then it will stay a thing for a long time.

So Individual, be kind to your sisters. While it's a beautiful thing to have a life and a family, let her know that not having these things when she's 30 or even 40 doesn't make her expired. Let her know that her sexual nature isn't even the most powerful thing about her.

Let her know that Mary Kay didn't become the famed entrepreneur until 45, let her know Toni Morrison, the famed writer, didn't garner attention until she turned 46. She needs to know Marie Curie, the famed scientist wasn't awareded her first Nobel Prize until 36, Viola Davies didn't make her Broadway debut until she turned 31. 

Tell her Kamala Harris became the first ever female and first black Vice president at 56, let her know that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala didn't become the first ever black and first ever female director general of the world bank until she turned 66.

Dear Individual, let her know that even if life deals her too many lemons to make lemonade in her 20s, in her 30s, 40s, 50s, whenever she decides she can roll her the red carpet for the show to begin.

Dear Individual, let her know that even when they think her sexual value reduces, she has much more value to offer the world than she knows.

Dear Individual, at any age, let her be #Woman.