Nothing is, but what it’s doing.
Women who shut down as women
Are commonly referred to as “women”
By every kindly and learned reformer
Who wants more rights for “women.”
But how can you enfranchise “women”
When these creatures are not women,
Since they are not behaving as women?
As women they have shut down.
Only acting as something makes it something.
Since these creatures are not women,
By giving rights to whatever they are,
First, you are playing God, giving rights
To creatures of which you know nothing,
But which you ignorantly call “women,”
And second, you oppress all women
By giving rights to what is not a woman.
Only a woman knows what a woman is,
But if she has shut down as a woman,
She no longer knows what a woman is,
But defines herself by kindly reformers
Who define things and name things
Ignorantly. The worst ignorance
Is learned speech naming what it cannot define.
I do not oppose women
When I oppose progress for women
Who have shut down as women. The
Origin and purpose of women defines woman,
Not “progress” for what is merely called
“Women”—which is ignorantly proclaimed
And not understood at all, by reformers
Whose secret desire is to defile women,
To travel backwards, to control and shame.
Beware the cries of “Rights! Progress! Reform!”
Folly will freeze. You deserve to be warm.