How we view ourselves and how the world views us, as women are two very different things. As some of us struggle with representation and identity we are faced with competing with external factors such as the male gaze.

Her Campus UCT beautifully touches on this in the article below.  (Click the image to access the article.)

The concept of womanhood in itself is one of complexity. I view it as a process of stages, similar. This poem showcases my stage of womanhood, in that it portrays my ignorance of the word yet acknowledges my knowledge of its’ greatness or the enlightenment that it promises once a woman fully becomes conscious of its’ understanding or meaning. I refer to it as my 'true form'.

​

The poem draws inspiration from Marriane Williamson's poem titled Our Deepest Fear where she explores that our greatest fear "is that we are powerful beyond measure". Women have been held back by the predominant patriarchal society that have placed the needs and well-being of men before our own. This hindered the relationship that we as women form with our own womanhood, in the sense that we were always placed second thus we were never truly given the chance to get to know the majesty of the woman that exists within ourselves. There is normality to being fearful of the unknown and it is the true undiscovered magnitude of the power that my inner-woman holds that I am fearful of. Yet, there is also great excitement of what unlocking this stage of womanhood can enable me to do. The latter being greater than the former.

​

Women continue to show me that womanhood is a concept that should be embodied. They show me that the final stage of womanhood unlocks a state of true enlightenment, a state that is not bound by limitation or definition. It is a state of true freedom.