" A strong woman is a woman in whose head
a voice is repeating, I told you so,
ugly, bad girl, bitch, nag, shrill, witch,
ballbuster, nobody will ever love you
back,
why aren't you feminine, why aren't
you soft, why aren't you quiet, why
aren't you dead?
A strong woman is a woman determined
to do something others are determined
not be done. She is pushing up on the
bottom
of a lead coffin lid. She is trying to raise
a manhole cover with her head, she is
trying
to butt her way through a steel wall.
Her head hurts. People waiting for the
hole
to be made say, hurry, you're so strong. "
― Marge Piercy , The Moon Is Always Female: Poems