Women

by Mercedes Rodriguez

University of the Incarnate Word

Mercedes Rodriguez is currently a second-year junior at UIW with a major in English and a minor in Creative Writing who is expected to graduate in 2025. She enjoys both writing and creating art.

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It’s tough being a girl, having to be pretty

and still and constantly cautious of where we are in a big city,

but God forbid we’re too much, too witty 

in our conversations with a man that it makes him feel pity

for himself. But it’s such a shame that women are always seen so poorly

It’s like everyone around us is so coyly

cruel. As if the only way to be seen is through a woman’s beauty

No slouching, no stretching, nothing askew, please act perfectly

because we’re not in a zoo. We’re an act in the industry—

a circus of scrutiny

and the ringmaster’s so cruel, a man—no shock, the whips burn unapologetically

like a rash from the rug, the man has no sympathy

It’s like the song, “this is a man’s world,” with all its toxicity 

from the very start. We are taught to bend and autonomy

should never be in our heart. So we break and we bruise, working against our anxiety

bleeding into a pool, pacing the room looking for clarity

and we push and we prod and we cave and we comply

It’s tough to be a lady when everyone treats us like we ought to die

We look at our skin with stretch marks and scars, we sigh

with anger, another thing we must hide, evidently we comply

Only to pretend what we are, we can be unpretty

but we’ve gone astray—

it’s tough to be a jewel when everyone looks away

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