I don’t call them beautiful. It’s not that they’re not beautiful—my God, they are—but that word has too much baggage. It’s an outsider’s word and it was weaponized to render these women invisible in the first place. They are full of so much more than beauty. I tell them they’re amazing. Powerful. I tell them they’re here. I will learn all their names in time. Tonight, we are just beginning. Baby steps, as the books in the Personal-Growth section liked to say.
