I’ve never heard a catcall directed towards me…

and at 16, I’ve been taught that’s a bad thing.

I’ve been taught that for my feelings to be justified,
someone else has to have had them.

I’ve been taught that I need to be like someone else,
to feel,
to think like someone else,
to be considered a human.

I can’t be a galaxy unexplored
or the ocean so far beneath us we can’t see.

I’ve been taught that catcalls equal beauty
and curves equal beauty.

People will say that the second line of that sentence isn’t true,
but nowadays people will whisper anorexic before they scream fattie.

I’ve been taught that my body is comparable to things that we know,’
my mind is comparable to things we don’t,
but maybe,
maybe if we compared my body to me and my mind to myself,
maybe we’d know that humans aren’t made up of bones and blood,
we are made up of galaxies.

There is still so much we don’t know,
but we stand behind our textbooks and our speeches and our laws,
and pretend that we do.

I’ve been taught that intelligence is an asian trait,
strength is a black one,
passion is a hispanic,
and privilege is a white one.

It stands unknown whether traits are defined by race
or defined by humanity.

I’ve been taught that unless I’m white and male and straight and cis,
that I will always be the lower class.

We can have all those amendments, but unless you are those things,
you are never going to be part of that superior race.

I am one of those things; I am white.
I am also female and pansexual and genderfluid.

I do not slide into one gender or sexuality.

I’ve been taught that gender and sexuality are permanent things,
that pansexuality and bisexuality and gender fluid and transgender, and basically anyone besides heterosexual cisgender people are just confused.

I’m not confused.

One day these labels maybe change as I explore more of my galaxy and my ocean, but I’ve also been taught that things don’t change. That even foundations and science doesn’t change.

Science and foundations, or building, ironically enough are called a man’s thing.

So what do we women have?

So what do we pansexuals have?

So what do we gender fluids have?

We have our oceans and our galaxies that lie beneath our bones and heartbeats and our brains,
and to me….

that means much more than any catcall at 16.