Some men online are telling a story that sounds confident, ancient, even protective at first glance. But when you sit with it, the story asks girls an
Some men online are telling a story that sounds confident, ancient, even protective at first glance. But when you sit with it, the story asks girls and women to disappear.
Here’s the story they’re pushing, made simple.
They say:
- Men marrying girls (child marriage) once “saved” girls from being single mothers.
- Colonization ruined this supposed protection.
- Black women were not seen as women by colonizers, therefore men can now claim womanhood.
- If women and girls would just submit again, everything would be “fixed.”
This story is not wisdom.
It is deceit dressed as history.
Let’s gently tell the truth.
What’s Being Left Out….. on Purpose
Child marriage does not protect girls.
It removes:
- their childhood,
- their education,
- their bodily autonomy,
- their ability to choose their own futures.
Calling this “protection” is a rewriting meant to comfort men, not to honor girls.
And the truth about Black women?
Yes, colonizers dehumanized Black women and little children.
They denied our womanhood TO JUSTIFY violence, exploitation, and control.
But that harm does not turn men into women. It does not turn child rapists into heroes.
It does not erase women.
It does not hand womanhood over to those who already held power.
Using Black women’s pain to claim authority over women today is not justice.
It is theft of memory and meaning.
The Manipulation Beneath the Words
This tactic works by doing three quiet things:
- Turning harm into “tradition”
- Turning control into “care”
- Turning men into heroes by making women the problem
It is meant to confuse, exhaust, and pressure women and girls into silence or submission.
If you feel unsettled reading these arguments, that is not weakness.
That could be your clarity speaking.
Here Is the Truth You Can Rest In
No one needs child marriage to be safe.
No one needs false history to deserve dignity.
No one has to submit to claim:
- education
- bodily autonomy
- spiritual authority
- legal rights
- self-sovereignty
Girls do not need saving from themselves.
Girls need:
- protection from violence
- access to learning
- time to grow
- adults who tell the truth
- communities that invest in their futures
A Grounding Reminder
We are strongest when we:
- support girls
- build girls
- educate girls
- believe girls
- protect girls without controlling them
Nothing good requires girls to shrink.
Nothing just requires women to disappear.
And no matter how loudly these stories are told online, they do not get to define reality.
You are allowed to rest today knowing this:
Truth does not need domination to survive.
It only needs to be remembered.
You’re not alone.
The spell breaks when we name it—together.