Being a woman is not always fair.
Much is expected,
and you grow up
yourself knowing only one way.
You should be beautiful and not uptight.
But natural, not sluttish, not too much make-up.
You should have children but go to work too, of course.
You should marry a man, but definitely be independent.
Women don’t talk about sex like men,
because women should seem innocent.
I think women and men in Germany
have progressed enough to know that they should have equal rights.
But that slight whiff of clichés and expectations
still hovers in the air and does not disappear.
I was lucky to have a very open-minded mother.
I could wear what I wanted.
And she never made me feel
that I could or couldn’t do something
because I am a girl.
When I was old enough,
she made me strong against the external pressure on women.
I feel good to be a woman.
I do not see being a woman as a role.
It does not mean:
I like pink,
I like children,
I love men.
It means:
I was born a girl
and feel good to be a woman.
Nothing more.
