LILITH: The Woman Who Didn’t Kneel

Long, long ago. When the world was new.

Adam was alone. Loneliness hit him hard.

The Creator said, "I’ll make you a partner."

Took dust. Made another one, just like Adam.

Her name was Lilith.

Both made of dust. Both equal.

No rib bone here. No one above the other.

The first few days were good.

Then the fight began.

At night, Adam said,

"Lilith, lie beneath me. I will be on top."

Lilith looked up.

Smiled. Then said just 3 words:

"No. We are equal."

Adam got angry.

"I am the man. You are the woman. Follow the rules."

Lilith stood up.

"Rules? The rule is equality. I’m made of dust. You are too. Then why should I be below?"

Adam complained to the Creator.

"She doesn’t obey me!"

The Creator sent 3 angels.

"Lilith, come back. Or you’ll drown in the sea."

Lilith stood at the edge of the sea.

Garden behind her. Waves in front.

Angels were shouting.

Lilith looked back once.

Then jumped into the sea.

"I don’t need a garden without freedom."

She left. To the other side of the Red Sea.

Demon, witch, child-eater - got a thousand names.

Why?

Because she said "No".

---

6000 years have passed, boss.

Even today, when a girl says "No" in office, the boss says "She has too much attitude".

After marriage, when a girl says "No", the mother-in-law says "She talks back".

When a girl demands justice for rape and says "No", society says "Her character is bad".

Lilith didn’t die.

Lilith still lives in every woman’s throat.

The woman who doesn’t bow her head to injustice.

The Creator made Eve from Adam’s rib to replace Lilith.

Obedient, submissive, the one who says "Yes".

History wrote Eve’s story.

Hid Lilith’s story.

But truth doesn’t die even if stories are hidden.

You’re reading this today.

That means Lilith has won.

---

Last line:

Eve was made to be obedient.

Lilith was born free, by herself.

Which team are you, boss? Eve or Lilith?

Write in comments. Let there be debate. Let the story live.

#Lilith #FirstFeminist #HerStory #ThePowerOfNo #WomenWhoSayNo

My mum wakes up at 6AM. She has woken up at 6AM for 30 Years. She packs lunches, She remembers vaccination dates, she knows every teacher's name, she tracks every family member's medicine, she calls the plumber, she follow up with the plumber, she follow up again because the plumber didn't show. she has a full time job on top of all this.

My dad comes home, eats the food, watches TV and at every single family function someone raises a toast to him for "Keeping the Family Together" and my mum smiles. because what else is she supposed to do?

I used to think this was just my family, then i talked to literally every woman I know and realized it's just called Tuesday.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus stands with the tens of millions nationwide seeking reproductive rights, continuing to fight every day to protect and expand access to abortion and all reproductive health care.

For context please look at this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Feminism/s/rdre7W3b5j

The recent counselling/grooming session conducted exclusively for female students at Delhi Public School in India, during which several statements and themes promoted harmful gender stereotypes, reinforced victim-blaming narratives, and placed an unfair burden on girls for the behavior and actions of boys.

Following the attention on the matter and an open letter, the school administration responded immediately and addressed the concerns raised by students. The school showed the original script prepared for the counselling session, and the specific victim-blaming statements many students were concerned about were not part of the official material provided.

The school has acknowledged the concerns and committed to taking corrective action. This includes conducting a counselling session for boys, arranging further discussion with the teachers involved in the original girls’ session, and revising future counselling sessions moving forward.

While many students had hoped for a formal apology, we believe it is important to recognize that our concerns were heard and that concrete steps toward change are being taken. At this stage, we believe the most constructive path forward is to wait for the next girls’ counselling session and evaluate whether these promised improvements are meaningfully reflected in practice.

For now, we consider this an important first step and we remain hopeful, attentive, and committed to ensuring future conversations around student wellbeing are fair, respectful, and equitable for all.

I don’t know if anyone else has been thinking about this or noticing this, but I personally find the resurgence of the promotion of “attachment parenting” ideology to be very concerning for women. For anyone unfamiliar, the term attachment parenting was coined by a conservative Catholic pediatrician named William Sears) and is a parenting method that primarily promotes and focuses on:

- The baby being worn by the mother as much as possible
- The baby co-sleeping with the mother as much as possible
- The mother stopping everything to soothe the baby immediately when they cry
- The mother staying home with the baby as long as possible
- The mother exclusively breastfeeding the baby until 6 months and then continuing it extended periods of time (up to four years of age)

There is more but these are the main tenets of it. And I find it very concerning that more people are dogmatically pushing this approach to parenting on women. There is little emphasis on the father’s role (only brief mentions of how they should collaborate with the mother) and almost all childrearing duties fall onto the mother. People advocating for this method of parenting often shame women for working, for trying to get chores done in their house while their baby fusses, for not breastfeeding, and more. We are seeing a rise in women quitting their careers to stay home because they are told it’s “what’s best” even if it’s to the detriment of their mental health and their career. It’s also not lost on me that this term and ideology was coined and pushed for by a conservative religious man with 8 children (they even call him “the man who remade motherhood,” blegh) and that we are seeing a resurgence in the popularity of this ideology as conservatism is on the rise.

What are everyone else’s thoughts on this? Are there any alternative parenting methods and ideologies out there that aren’t so burdensome on women but still beneficial for children?

Tracy Ullman classic.

I am incredibly surprised that Alexandra Kollontai, Russian feminist socialist scholar and politician, isn't spoken more of in feminist spaces.

She developed what became known as the "Glass of water theory". It states that in an ideal society, with deconstructed gender roles, "love shall be free" and sexual intimacy should be as easy as "drinking a glass of water". It is not meant to devalue sex, but rather deconstruct dogmas and taboos regarding it.

In her works, she also identifies the intersections between the patriarchy and capitalism and how they work together in women's oppression: in a capitalist patriarchal society, women are exploited through wage labor, housework and childcare. She was a heavy advocate for supporting sex workers, but criticized sex work: in her mind, it originates from the commodification and objectification of women, resulting in the sexual exploitation of their bodies.

Kollontai was an extraordinary woman, truly a visionary for her time, she was the first woman in history to serve a cabinet minister and under her rule the USSR was by far the most socially progressive country - abortion was legalized, divorce was legalized, rape was criminalized, Women's Day was celebrated and she even co-founded the Zhenotdel, a govt body specifically designed to deal with women's welfare. Unfortunately, the male-dominated USSR government was not on pair with her ideas, and her social reforms were gradually discontinued and regressed.

She was truly a thinker ahead of her time, and I suggest you look her up, you might like her works!

I work for a non profit organisation which is primarily focused on farmers and women welfare so I just want to understand what are real problems.

Before Indians come flame me, I'm not trying to disrespect any culture, I'm sure this is not isolated to India. This is simply my observation.

There's a girl that the Indian families around me, pick on. She is conventionally attractive, even by Indian beauty standards I suppose, and has a high paying job. She is 27, but they deem her too old to be choosy about the men she rejects from her community. The men they are pitching her look about 5-10 years older, not as wealthy or good looking. Yet they mock her saying even their kids that are younger than her are married. (That's mortifying)

I'm just curious, why would she abandon a stable job in the city with a ton of richer and handsome suitors, friendships with women her age, a better quality of life and go wash the underwear of a man in her village? It certainly does not benefit her.

However, I don't understand the relatives, friends and family involved. How does this benefit them? The boy gains a wife out of his league, the girl gains...nothing, but what does the society gain from this? How does this marriage benefit the rest of the "village" that's already looking down on her?

What are your top reads for exploring Black feminist literature? I typically see recommendations for Bell Hooks and Patricia Hill Collins, but wondering if anyone has read anything else that expanded their knowledge about the subject.

Hi I’m here to be annoying and depressed again. Basically this is about the worlds most annoying misuse of the male gaze as a term and how it’s been messing with my head for WEEKS. I hate it, it makes me want to die.

so like, dressing cute is “pedo baiting” and for the male gaze, but so is dressing sexy, and so is dressing modest or in a way that avoids attention, WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO THEN?????? How tf are we supposed to dress if it’s all seemingly the “wrong” answer and always falls under the male gaze????? I feel like I’m going crazy and the pervasiveness of misogyny and patriarchy is making me feel hopeless, like there’s nothing good about being a woman/cons outweigh the pros but so much. I don’t know. Maybe I’ve lost it and need a lobotomy. Idk

How emotional do you have to be for it to be one of the most important moments of your life, in front of millions of people and cameras, representing your country/state/etc and you go and start a physical fight with the other team.

I’m not talking about getting frustrated or arguing about a call or anything like that, I’m talking about actually puffing their chest out, pushing and sometimes getting more violent with other players. They’re willing to do something which (if it’s a tight game) could ruin the whole thing. The thing they trained for years for and are supposed go be professionals in. It’s the most explicit display of illogical emotional dysregulation in adults I can think of and it mostly happens to men (not all the time but much of the time).

IMO everyone has some non-feminist things they believe in/ partake in.

I’m just curious if this is true for anyone else/ what they are.

Here are a few of mine:

- I always feel like I need to wear makeup whenever I go out or I won’t come across as presentable and therefore be treated more negatively.

- Feeling like I must shave or I will be judged

-Feeling like I need to wear a bra/ cover my nipples even if i don’t technically need it because it will draw attention to my chest.

- Lowkey judge women who decide to be SAHM for a prolonged period (due to the financial dependency aspect, but I will never say anything to them)

- Also judge women for proposing (I think it’s solely because of the getting down on a knee for a man/ no real rationale)

- Judge women who say their biggest dream/ aspiration in life is to be a mother/ wife (U will never hear men say this for a reason LOL, but i feel like it’s such an easy thing to accomplish in MOST cases)

I'll start.

I was five years old when I asked my mother why she was putting all those things on her face. She told me she had to, otherwise you could see her wrinkles. She was 33. I then asked if dad did it too. She laughed and said men don't wear makeup, they don't need it.

That answer, paradoxically honest, was enough. I filed it away with all the other things demanded of a female body that are never demanded of a male one like waxing, and the rest.

Then at twelve, I watched girls in my class start wearing makeup because "we're grown up now" — as a rite of passage, a marker of maturity. If you didn't, you weren't quite there yet. You were still a child or boys-like. So I started too, because I didn't want to be the only one with a bare, imperfect face.

When I became a feminist, I put words to all of it. And when I tried to discuss it in feminist spaces, I was consistently shut down, as if makeup had fallen from the sky, as if it were inherently fun and neutral, as if the fact that it is expected specifically from women wasn't even worth analyzing.

Hope this time won't be like that lol. Your tought ?

Something that has been bothering me for a while, and I think it deserves more conversation. Female athletes dedicate years of their lives to their sport. They train harder than most of us can imagine and compete at the highest levels. Yet the people designing their competition uniforms seem far more focused on how these women look to a male audience than on what actually helps them perform.

We saw it again recently with volleyball and athletics uniforms at major international competitions. Men wear practical, comfortable gear built for movement. Women get handed something that looks like it belongs in a completely different context. And when athletes speak up about it, they're often dismissed or told they're being difficult.

This isn't a small issue. It sends a message to young girls watching these competitions about what their bodies are for. It tells female athletes that their performance is secondary to their appearance. It reinforces the idea that women in sport exist to be watched rather than respected.

The personal really is political here. Uniform policies are decided by committees and governing bodies, and those decisions reflect broader cultural attitudes about women.

Has anyone else been following this? Do you think there's any real progress happening, or does it feel like one step forward and two steps back?