TW: tr@nsphobia, verbal @bus3, gvns The so-called boy is 8. Playing dress-up with his best friend. Comes home wearing a sparkly tutu his friend said he could keep. Gets yelled at by his father while his mother cries. "You are a man, act like one." The so-called boy is 13. His father brings him out to the woods to teach him to shoot. He would rather be at home, pretending that the G.I. Joes he got are the barbies he really asked for. His father calls him a coward. "You are a man, act like one." The so-called boy is 15. Forced to cut his hair, which had reached his shoulders. Forced to play football, when he wanted to do dance. Forced to stop being friends with girls, unless he's dating them. Forced to endure his father's insults: "You are a man, act like one." The woman is 18. She moved out the day she became an adult. Her father cut her off. She doesn't care. She moved in with her best friend, and things are better. She no longer has to hear: "You are a man. Act like one."
THis poem is NOT about needing toxic masculinity to be a man. It is ONE experience of being trans and does not represent everyone's. Respectfully, you all need to calm down. Thanks
