And yet.

She was trained to be a mirror—reflecting what others needed to see.

Some nights she caught herself in the window’s reflection—perfectly angled, waiting for an appraisal that hadn’t yet arrived—and felt a surge of rage so clean it could fuel a city. Other nights, the rage collapsed into a smaller, uglier question: What if the training worked? What if I’m most powerful when I’m most object-like?

She lives in that hyphen—the “mi…”—the unfinished syllable between mirror and mind , between misogyny and misfit . Some days, she calls that hyphen freedom: the refusal to resolve the contradiction. Other days, she calls it exhaustion.

But she’s still here. Still reading. Still marching. Still catching her reflection and, once in a while, winking at the woman inside the object, because that woman—sharp, soft, furious, trained—is the only one who knows the whole story.

Empowered Feminist Trained To Be An Object - Mi... -

And yet.

She was trained to be a mirror—reflecting what others needed to see. Empowered feminist trained to be an object - mi...

Some nights she caught herself in the window’s reflection—perfectly angled, waiting for an appraisal that hadn’t yet arrived—and felt a surge of rage so clean it could fuel a city. Other nights, the rage collapsed into a smaller, uglier question: What if the training worked? What if I’m most powerful when I’m most object-like? And yet

She lives in that hyphen—the “mi…”—the unfinished syllable between mirror and mind , between misogyny and misfit . Some days, she calls that hyphen freedom: the refusal to resolve the contradiction. Other days, she calls it exhaustion. Other nights, the rage collapsed into a smaller,

But she’s still here. Still reading. Still marching. Still catching her reflection and, once in a while, winking at the woman inside the object, because that woman—sharp, soft, furious, trained—is the only one who knows the whole story.