(no subject)

[darkoshi]

What really bothers me from reading that article
is the part about the boy coming home crying....
that boys are made fun of for having a "girl's" name.

I am angry that boys are made fun of
for having characteristics that are deemed "girlish".
I am angry that it is an insult to liken a boy to a girl.
I am angry that girls and females are insulted in that way.

It is bad to be a girl.
It is bad to look like a girl.
It is bad to have the characteristics of a girl.
Girlish qualities are inferior.

This is what I grew up with.
Perhaps I identified too much with the boys,
or not enough with the girls,
that I was influenced by these subtle or not-so-subtle messages
which were aimed at boys, even though I was a girl.

I did not want to be like a girl.
I did not want to look like a girl.

I wanted to redefine what it meant to be a girl,
and make it more like being a boy.

Because the boyish qualities were the good ones, after all.

I thought those were my own ideas
but perhaps they weren't.
Or perhaps they were, but they were reinforced by the external
messages.

If the external messages matched my own thoughts,
that just proved my own thoughts were valid, didn't it?
And I still have those thoughts.
And they still feel like my own.

But it still hurts and ANGERS me,
hearing about boys being derided, ridiculed, or punished,
for seeming too much like a girl.

It hurts and angers, because I empathize with those boys,
and yet I empathize with being a girl too,
and THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING A GIRL!!!
Even if I am a boy.
Or a boy-girl.
Or a non-boy, non-girl.

So how dare you make fun of me,
for BEING ME.
How dare you heap insults upon me,
for BEING ME.
I am GOOD and WONDERFUL just as I am,
so how dare you not appreciate that,
and how dare you try to change me.
How dare you say I have to be like this or like that.

How dare you make those boys feel bad
for being who they are,
for being like me,
and how dare you make them change to be more like YOU.

I guess if they come home crying
and demand to be addressed by a more "boyish" name,
instead of being proud for having a name that is both
a "girl's name" and a "boy's name",
they aren't really like me after all.

So why should I feel bad.
Why should I feel angered.

Because they do it to people like me too.
Even if we don't give in to it.

Maybe I'm angry at the boy's reaction;
maybe I'm angry that he isn't like me.
Maybe I'm angry that he is so easily influenced;
and that he believes it is bad for a boy to seem like a girl.