Melissa Lux, age 42

Edgewood, New Mexico

“What a Pussy!” 

We need to reclaim pussy. They keep using it wrong. What they’re thinking of is limp dick. It’s a limp dick that can’t get anything done, that’s weak, reticent and shrinking. But a pussy? A pussy has seen some shit. A pussy can take a pounding and bounce back. A pussy bleeds for a week straight every month and still gets up and goes to work every day. A pussy makes things happen.

The abuse I’ve suffered at the hands and minds of men is not what defines me. It’s my resiliency and resourcefulness. Reduced to rubble, again and again, has reified my foundation. I’ve reconstructed myself so many times that I know every piece of every part that makes me whole. And when I show you my wounds, the ones that still weep and the ones that shine, brilliant scars, I hope you do me the honor of telling me what a pussy I am.