A letter to my sisters
Snow white is no longer white, Cinderella is now in high heels and sleeping beauty woke up. I don’t make sense right now but let’s take a walk together and chat. There is a fairy tale fantasy that girls in their 20s today are living in. The idea that there is someone somewhere who wakes up very early every day while they are still asleep and at the end of the month Mr. X owes them a salary for being pretty, for being sexy, for looking good. While your mother is somewhere in a tiny village at the foot of mount Kenya, the shores of Lake Victoria or the plains of the Rift Valley saying a prayer each day for you after she invested in a good education for you, you are busy sending messages to married men who for God knows what reason should pay your rent, fund your weekend getaways with your girls, foot your shopping bills and fuel that car which is not registered in your name.
My dear sister, as you indulge in deep slumber there is a woman Supreme Court judge who earned that position out of merit, so trust me sleeping beauty woke up. Those men you hang out with every Friday are only with you because they don’t have to try so hard to get you to tag along. The women they worked hard to impress are treated to exquisite dinners at Sankara because darling you reflect what you attract.
You are with him at that dingy joint on Moi Avenue because to him that’s what you deserve. Are you still wondering why he treats his wife better? Are you wondering why you are an underground secret that cannot see light of day? Are you wondering why his escapades with you must be kept under the wraps and must take place at some secluded house he takes every cheap woman he picks from the streets? Why should we talk about equality when some of us sit in houses the whole day and keep up with the Kardashians?
I am sure those American girls would be very grateful to know that you spend half your day’s life watching them live theirs. They earn a living from your laziness darling. Again those girls work extremely hard. Perhaps you could try keeping up with them by at least setting up a socks line of your own. Those that fought for gender equality wanted to raise a woman who could compete at the same level with the men. They wanted girls to go to school so that they could unlock their full potential. So that women could rise to positions such as senators, governors and even President without being told ‘’you got it because you are a woman’’ or ‘’you must have slept your way to the top.’’ They hoped to raise a woman who did not need a man to achieve small things like having her hair made. They envisaged a society where a woman would be respected for what she brings to the table and not merely because of her looks. They hoped for a woman who could bargain with her neck upwards.
So my dear sisters when you sit and wait, wait for a man to finance your lifestyle simply because you can offer an already battered part of your female anatomy, you are an embarrassment to the spirit and legacy of women like the late Prof. Wangari Mathai and the rest who struggled to elevate the African woman and indeed the entire human female species. If it’s 2 am and you happen to lose your shoe sweetheart you are not Cinderella, you are drunk! If it’s Monday morning and you are still in bed at 10am, you are lazy not sleeping beauty! As you approach 30 continue smoking sheesha, weed and everything else that your lungs can take then keep wishing for prince charming to come and kiss you out of imminent destruction and death. Let’s snap out of the dream my dear sisters and prove to our mothers that their efforts to create a better tomorrow for us was not in vain. The only way for women to prove to the world that there is more to them than trophies to be won for simple bodily gratifications is to change from within themselves.They must prove that they are worth all the opportunities that are being put for them.