The Feminine Experience
Written by Anshita Sonone, Illustrated by Khushi Marwaha - April 29th, 2025
Content warning: profanity
Femininity is violent.
Girlhood is turbulent.
Elegance and grace are proof,
the inevitable truth,
women are systemically cruel.
Mothers resent daughters,
begrudge their mothers,
stifle sisters and envy brothers.
Men hate women.
Women also hate women.
Evident and obvious.
No wonder girls are angry.
Every step and every choice
never being theirs to make.
The world is perpetually ending.
Pretty as a flower,
white as porcelain,
eyes that twinkle and
hair that hugs her waist.
Little whispers of inquiry,
precocity and wit.
All is taught to her
but only to not use.
A voice given to choke.
The ideal woman.
That’s what you want me to be?
And yet I sit here again.
Never the chosen,
never the wanted,
always the sidekick,
always that chick.
Chick.
Witch.
Bitch.
Wife.
Maid.
Ass.
Tits.
What other things do you call her?
Crazy?
I wrote ‘The Feminine Experience’ on a whim. It came from a place of anger and a feeling of hopelessness that I'm sure most women experience at some point. I wanted to leave it as unfiltered and raw as possible, even if it sounds corny at times, but that's the whole point. I wanted to write down my frustrations with girlhood; I wanted to yell it out, and so this is what came out of it. The unfortunate regularities that build up this complex concept of femininity.
- Anshita Sonone