Dainty | Teen Ink

Dainty

January 26, 2015
By Launa BRONZE, Louisville, Kentucky
Launa BRONZE, Louisville, Kentucky
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

When I grow up I want to be just like mommy! I want to stay at home and take care of the baby! I can cook and clean and do the laundry better than anyone else! I’m not too good at the whole “mechanic” thing though, and I’m not much in a fight.


What do you mean “is there something wrong with me?” Of course not! I just like some things more than others.
But what do you mean by “those aren’t a man’s jobs?” They seem alright to me.


Is it wrong that I like baking more than wrestling? Is it wrong that I like doing laundry more than washing the car? Is it wrong that I’d care for a child instead of getting covered in dirt and axle grease? Does it make me a pansy for not liking mud? Does it make me a wimp to not do what Mr. Masculine does?


We as a people have become so caught up in our own insecurities and self-set images of perfection we forget that life isn’t a black and white attribute scale. Nor is it a spectrum for the “masculine” and “feminine” extremes. It’s a vast flowing range of individual qualities in our personalities that makes us who we are.


We are living in a time of change, the age of new thinkers, and yet we squander our thoughts for the fabricated ideas imposed by traditional gender roles. Make your own ideas! Make your own person!


In a world where a man shouldn’t wear a skirt and a girl into sports is automatically a tomboy. And where girls are nurses and men are doctors. And a man is pressured into never deviating from an unbreaking masculinity or he will never make it in society.


And these “norms” in society change us. They call us names, some we agree with while others not, crush us into a box, and file us away as normal or abnormal. And if you don’t fit the “manly” criteria you are cast aside. Ostracized next to the social norms.


But when it comes to people, there is no normal. If you say there is a criteria for a man, you’re dead wrong.
You’re not boyish for preferring baseball over Barbies. And you’re sure as hell not a girl just because you wear pink and like flowers. There’s what you are and there’s who you are.


The human race is so diverse, so spectacular, but we still act like there is no gray area,
As if there is nothing to question, and everything is as defined as we make it out to be.
Not every boy you meet is stoic.
Not every boy you meet will be large and in charge.
I’m not the model of masculinity.
I’m me.
Just a bit dainty.



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