Long before I began to wonder whether I was a feminist, back when I was just a teenager who had never even heard the word feminism pass anybody's lips, I found myself constantly trying to answer the question: are women evil?
No one ever explicitly told me that women were evil. So where did I get this idea that they might be?
By the time I hit puberty, there were things I already knew, that no one ever taught me. It was like I woke up at the age of fourteen not only knowing, but embracing certain facts. For example, I knew without a doubt that sex was power. Having been literally pre-pubescent up until then, being sexualized was new to me and I was eager to finally be seen as sexy. I knew that if I was sexy then I would be powerful. If boys thought I was sexy, then they’d listen to the things I had to say, they’d get to know me, they’d like me, they'd include me in things, they’d be my friend and protect me from being by bullied by mean girls. In other words, if boys found me sexy, then I could manipulate them, and I did. I used them to my benefit with such a sleight of hand that I never once felt powerless. I felt evil.