They called her a monster,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
but before that, she was a priestess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Honored. Sacred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not for her body,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
but for the power pulsing quietly in her presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until a god\u2014no,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a man cloaked in godhood\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
decided she was his to take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the goddess she served<\/p>\n\n\n\n
didn\u2019t shield her,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
didn\u2019t save her\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
she turned her into stone instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As if her pain<\/p>\n\n\n\n
was too much to witness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How often have I felt<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the stone creeping up my spine\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
for being beautiful,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
for being bright,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
for being bold enough to speak,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
to shine<\/p>\n\n\n\n
in rooms that wanted me silent, small, and smiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like Medusa,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was blamed for what I endured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The violation,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the silence,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the exile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They said she must have asked for it<\/em>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n or worse, deserved it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Because some men don\u2019t like women<\/p>\n\n\n\n who make them feel small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But here\u2019s what they forget:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even severed,<\/p>\n\n\n\n her head held power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even silenced,<\/p>\n\n\n\n she still turned men to stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even cursed,<\/p>\n\n\n\n she gave birth to Pegasus\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n something divine still rose from her wound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So maybe I am not here to be palatable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe I am here to terrify the right people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe, like her,<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am not a warning\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n but a reckoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They called her a monster, but before that, she was a priestess. Honored. Sacred. Not for her body, but for the power pulsing quietly in her presence. Until a god\u2014no, a man cloaked in godhood\u2014 decided she was his to take. And the goddess she served didn\u2019t shield her, didn\u2019t save her\u2014 she turned her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,3,56,39,27,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-critical-thinking","category-empowerment","category-history","category-inspiration","category-reflection","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1009,"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004\/revisions\/1009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}