Protective Layers

You want me to remove that hair
It's unsightly
You want me to scrape off the skin
Not soft or inviting
You want me to wear smaller clothes
Fewer clothes
I should offer my soft moisturized young vulnerable unprotected skin
To your gaze
To your ... Touch?
To your consumption

My hair should be long and yankable
Clothes easily slip off-able
Legs long and shapely in heels that prevent me from running

Shoes that invite injury or your sexual attention
Are not for me.
Scraping the protection from my skin
Is not for me.
Clothes that give me shivers
Not for me

But then the whole business has always been about you anyway
Your gaze
Your desire
Your ... Access. To me

No.
I am old enough to want myself
And canny enough to tell the young girls about you
And strong enough to teach them how to protect themselves.

I protect them.
I protect myself.
You have to earn your way past these walls.
We build them strong. We build with confidence. We value ourselves as the first, most important treasure.

Only the deserving will earn our precious selves.