After this week’s reading, I thought a lot about how people treat black women. Something I noticed that’s very common in black households is the shaming of young black girls. When a black girl reaches a certain age and begins to develop her body, her mother becomes more hostile towards her. I’m not sure where it came from, but I’ve noticed the pattern. We’re often told to cover up, especially when certain family members come over. This is probably why there are so many black women who were “touched” as children growing up. When I was a preteen, I wasn’t even allowed to wear tights because people might look at me. That never made any sense. The problem wasn’t me. It’s the grownups who think it’s okay to look at a child’s body. Black girls are often taught to be ashamed of their bodies. When I got my period, I was always told to hide my box of pads or pretend that I was sick and not on my “period.” For years, “period” was a dirty word among guys, and my family frequently tried to hide our menstrual cycles from the men in our family for fear of making them uncomfortable. But periods are normal, so we shouldn’t have to hide them. Many of my friends had the same experience too, being told that their cycles were shameful. I find it rather ironic that we get treated that way growing up because it’s the complete opposite as we get older. Nowadays, a black woman has to be sexualized to be deemed attractive. Especially if you are dark-skinned. By society’s standards, we have to have voluptuous curves, big breasts, and a big butt to be pretty. We have to have a buss down weave or an afro with loose curls. We have to look perfect all the time. We can’t do messy buns. The world is very biased towards black women, and they need to do better. This isn’t a society that I would want to raise my future children in. I hope we see more movements fighting for us in the coming years.