MY BROTHER CALLS HIMSELF A FUCKING FEMINIST Sunlight on academic floors New words for old mistakes He lectures on equality While taking what he takes He knows the language of oppression He knows exactly what to say He can name a thousand systems Then erase his sister anyway You fight for women in the lecture hall You speak of power and control You quote the books on patriarchy While quietly taking your own My brother calls himself a fucking feminist He knows every word by heart He can explain the structures of power Then play his part inside the dark He stands beneath the university lights Talking justice, truth and care But when the inheritance comes home Suddenly I’m not there We grew up inside the same house But somehow lived different lives I learned what silence sounded like You learned how power survives You changed the language You changed the frame You changed the story But kept the gain And I was supposed to smile Because the theory sounded right While the woman standing next to you Was disappearing out of sight My brother calls himself a fucking feminist What a beautiful disguise He can talk about equality With somebody else’s money in his eyes He can teach a room about oppression He can dissect the male gaze Then look straight through his sister Like she was never in the frame And my children? What were they then? A footnote in the family ledger? An inconvenience to be edited When the inheritance was divided? You speak about women's voices You speak about women's rights But apparently some women's voices Are only welcome when they're quiet You fight for language in public And rewrite it at home You stand beneath the spotlight While I learn to stand alone Oh, professor of equality Tell me how this part is done: How do you preach about justice While benefiting from what was taken from one? Maybe that's the cleverest trick of all Not denying the system exists Just making sure it never touches you While you stand there explaining it You don't have to hate women To use them when it suits you You only have to believe That your principles apply to everyone but you My brother calls himself a fucking feminist And everybody applauds the role But I remember who he was Before the title, before the podium, before the show So keep your polished language Keep your carefully chosen words Keep your theories about equality And every righteous sentence you've rehearsed Because I was there Before the books Before the titles Before the stage And I know the difference Between understanding power And using it. The lecture hall goes silent. The spotlight stays bright. And somewhere beneath the theory A sister is still standing there Not a footnote. Not a case study. Not an example. A woman you tried to write out of the story. And that's the part your feminism will never explain.
