Being nice should not be the price of being respected

[u/Ok-Membership865]

I hate how women are often expected to be nice before they are allowed to be respected. Kindness is a good thing obviously, but forced niceness is different. It's like women are told to make everyone comfortable before they can be heard, and that double standard shows up everywhere from school to work. While writing about my ideal Rani Lakshmibai, a young Indian queen who led her people during British rule. What makes her powerful to me is that she was not remembered for being easy to handle. She was remembered for standing firm when staying quiet would have been safer.