Gender Inequality

Real men don’t cry. Girls should wear skirts.

Society puts an idea in our heads of what they want to see.

What they know to be true about a certain gender.

A category with characteristics, that all boys and girls have to fit into,

just be be considered “normal.”

Well, what if she has a passion for soccer, or football.

What if she doesn't like the way a skirt brushes against her upper thigh,

or the way mascara on her eyelashes feelings like a cage.

How about if the pigment of deep red lipstick on her lips is like a lock on her voice.

What about if she enjoys the way dirt tingles under her fingernails.

And likes how she can fix up a car in less than a minute.

What if the easiest way for him to unwind, is to light his favorite vanilla scented candle,

and heat his bathtub with steaming water, and immersing its edges with tiny pink bubbles.

Will his manhood be questioned?

Why does his sensitivity, and his softness make him the outcast. Why do kids continuously tell him to “man up.”

We are all tired of being told what we are supposed to do.

What we should wear, and what we should say.

We are all sick of having a common norm being drilled into our confused minds.

Looking into the mirror, the face of your biggest critique stares back at you.

It judges every sharp point, and curve of your imperfect body.

We are the reasons why girls and boys cry themselves to sleep.

We make up the harsh society we live in, and we need to change.

Stop laughing at the boy whose voice is a slightly higher pitch than yours,

or at the girl who doesn’t mask her face with makeup like the rest of them.

We should all be able to live in a world where gender equality exists.

To go about our lives with free and unmasked actions,

not worrying about what others will say.

Because we are all equal. Is it really too hard to accept that?