"Growing up, I always thought it would be better to be a boy."
That's how actress Lizzy Caplan begins her recent essay featured in Cosmopolitan.com. The 33-year-old describes how she always thought it would be more fun to be a boy when she was young. Caplan was quite the tomboy as a young girl, with interests including her lizard collection, sports and washing the car with her dad "like a couple of bros."
"I was less a little princess and more an awkward collection of elbows," Caplan writes.
As she grew up, however, Caplan realized she didn't want to be a boy -- she just wanted to be treated the same way. "These days, I celebrate my femininity, the way my body looks and feels, the way my brain works," Caplan writes. "I still want all the same opportunities that are afforded to the boys. I want to be paid as much as the boys. I want to vote for a presidential candidate who shares my gender. I want to continue my career after having children without even a trace of side-eyed judgment."
She explains that she wants to live in a world where "being a girl doesn't limit one's access to education, reproductive rights, opportunity, or success. Where regardless of which city, town, or third-world village you come from being a girl with big ideas, lofty goals, and a (gasp!) healthy sexual appetite is not considered a punishable crime."
Caplan concludes her essay, writing, "I don't want to be a boy, but I sure as hell want to be equal to them. Perhaps that's what I've been striving for all along."
Hell yes. Well said, Lizzy.
Head over to Cosmopolitan.com to read the rest of Caplan's essay.
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