How We Broke Free from Societal Condi...

Once upon a time, there was a town. They experienced lots of inequality: women were treated better than men, white people were treated better than people of color, rich people were treated better than poor, and able-bodied people were treated better than disabled people. One girl was tired of living in this unfair world, and she wanted to do something about it. So she took her courage and went into the forest to find out what was written there. She went into the darkest part of that forest, where no one had ever been before. There, she found a cave with an enormous door with sharp teeth in it. When she opened the door, she saw two giant words written on the ground: “WHY” “WHY NOT?” At that point in time, no one had ever questioned this order, so the girl decided to question why not in her own way. She drew all around those giant letters until they became many small letters that, when put together, formed two other words: “YOU.” Later that night, when everyone else was sleeping, she started telling stories to all the children who lived in the town about these two giant words she found in the forest, which somehow caused chaos within their society despite its structuring effect on their minds. Little by little, thanks to her stories and encouragement for questioning everything (including why), everyone saw this message differently; they started asking themselves, “Why not?” instead of “Why.” Soon after, their society changed considerably; women were treated like men, people of color were treated like white, rich people were treated like poor, and disabled people were treated like able-bodied. The girl had broken free from societal conditioning by deconstructing language through the art of storytelling while engaging in resistance against patriarchal hegemony through subversive means while raising awareness about gender discrimination while altering our perspectives to achieve an overall equity for all classes.