I Cannot Be | Teen Ink

I Cannot Be

May 24, 2014
By Anonymous

I am told that I cannot be woman

I cannot be a woman who sleeps with no man,
For then I am a prude.
I cannot be a woman who sleeps with every man,
For then I am a slut.
I cannot be a woman who smiles at any man but will not sleep with him,
For then I am a tease.
I cannot be a woman who smiles at no man but smiles at women,
For then I am a dyke.
I cannot be a prude, a slut, a tease, or a dyke,
For then I am unworthy.
So I cannot be woman.

But neither can I be man,
For then I am a ‘shehe,’ a ‘tranny.
So I cannot be man.

But nor can I be neither nor both,
For then I am a freak.
So I cannot be neither or both.

I cannot exist, for I cannot be a prude, a slut, a tease, a dyke, a man, neither, or both. I cannot be.


The author's comments:
This is just a short piece I've had bouncing around in my head. It needed to get out, so I decided to write it.

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on May. 31 2014 at 4:48 pm
booklover20 BRONZE, Oberlin, Kansas
2 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
" racism is still among us but all that we can do is prepare our chilren for their life and hope we overcome racism

true that is true