While I am non-binary and do not consider myself to be a woman, I still often think about how being raised as a girl has impacted my life. Women are so often forced into being put in a box, forced into society telling them what they are and what they should strive to be.

In the United States, Christianity is so dominant in influencing mainstream culture in ways we sometimes don’t even register. As someone who was raised without religion, I’ve often thought about how Christian norms of femininity were forced upon me by the culture whether I was religious or not.

I should be submissive.

I should strive to be beautiful.

I should make myself smaller so men in my life can take up space.

They say that women are lesser than men because Eve listened to the snake instead of God and ate the apple that got humanity kicked out of the Garden of Eden. I don’t believe that’s real, but I still feel that damned snake around my neck every time I feel lesser than because of who I am.