Being a woman has never been easy. And as we are forced to say a solemn and unwanted goodbye to the most important person in the saga that is American women’s history, many of us feel the weight of that burden even moreso.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a woman who specialized in words, and wielded them so artfully that many rights were won in their wake. It is therefore fitting to turn to words now so that they may offer not only comfort in our time of grief, but a reminder that American women are determined, formidable, and the sole makers of their future.
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
There’s not a man alive who can tell me what to do.
— Unknown
He offered her the world.
She said she had her own.
Did you really think she was a tender flower
you could trample upon, and damage her very soul?
She is wildfire.
And she is coming to devour you whole.
The Feminine
Is not
Dead
Nor is she
Sleeping
Angry, yes,
Seething, yes.
Biding her time;
Yes.
Yes.
— Alice Walker, To Be A Woman
Scream
So that one day
A hundred years from now
Another sister will not have to
Dry her tears wondering
Where in history she lost her voice.
Love many
Trust few
Always paddle
Your own canoe.
— Unknown
She slept with wolves without fear,
for the wolves knew a lion was among them.
“And when they dare to tell you
About all the things you cannot be,
You smile and tell them,
‘I am both war and woman and you cannot stop me’”
— Nikita Gill, Ode to Fearless Woman
“You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.”
— Maya Angelou, Still I Rise
She was fierce, she was strong, she wasn’t simple… She was a beast in her own way, but one idea described her best.
She was unstoppable and she took anything she wanted with a smile.
There is no faith in man
Not even in a brother
So girls if you must love
Love one another.
— Unknown
“For every witch you burned
There are now a thousand witch women living differently, and standing tall.
And you may have burned some of us
But you will never destroy us all.”
— Nikita Gill, To the Men Who Burned Witches
“May they never underestimate you again.”
— Amanda Lovelace, The Princess Saves Herself In This One