against small words

you are a woman.
not just a woman.

not a punchline.
not a spectacle.
not something to be reduced to a joke or a careless remark.

lately, the noise has been loud.
men speaking about women as if they were objects;
something to laugh at,
something to rate,
something to diminish.

when men in power reduce women to entertainment,
they reveal more about themselves
than about the women they try to belittle.
they remind us how easily misogyny can still find a microphone.
their words travel far.
but they are small.

because every time i raise my camera to photograph a woman,
i am reminded of something else entirely.

you are not small.
you are not something to be reduced.

growing up, there was only one woman at home.
that was enough to understand this:

the world often stands on work that goes unnoticed.
and much of it is carried by women.

in the faces i photograph, i see it again and again.

you are a woman.
not just a woman.
and that has never been a small thing.