poem/teenage girls
as a teenage girl you get points
for being different to other teenage
girls, which leads you to believe
that other
teenage girls
are the enemy.
.
this logic says,
you cannot be what you are.
this logic says
you may only define yourself as good
as opposed
to the parts of yourself, your age and sex
and generational culture
you excise.
.
because being a teenage girl
is a trap
(oh admiral ackbar, hear our prayers) –
.
you cannot have passions, unless they are
the passions of teenage boys
and even then, you are suspect:
a thief, a dilettante, a liar (she only pretends
to like video games
so that boys who think girls who like video games
are fakers and whores
will sleep with her, because that’s
what you’re meant to aspire to – that’s
the goal, because obviously
your self esteem is so low and weak
your only aim
is feigning interest in things you hate
so that boys who are trained revile the attempt
might deign to notice your bodies
and not your brains) –
.
you cannot have joys
that are teen-girl joys
unless you want to be superficial, shallow, dumb
because girls are dumb
and their joys are dumb
and the only way to be cool as frozen carbonite
is to say so, loudly and often, in
the presence of boys
until you believe it totally; until the laughter
no longer cuts the valves of your heart
and serves them up like sashimi
.
(because only girls who are worthless sheep
like what other girls like; because only girls
who dare to be girls
are worthless)
.
and the lies have you coming and going:
love this thing, you’re made a pretender;
love that thing, you’ve got no brains –
is there anything teenage girls can love
that the world won’t flinch from admitting is cool;
where the world won’t say, you really
should know better?
.
not yet, there’s not –
and the only answer
is love yourself
regardless.
.
love what you love
and make no apologies
for loving it;
love who you love
and make no apologies
for loving them
.
if everything you do
draws abuse and criticism
then love what the fuck you want
whatever the fuck you want
and know at least
that the love is pure;
that your love and your selves
exist beyond apology
.
(they always did, of course –
but it’s hard to tell
when your wrist is slapped
regardless)
.
so love what you love
and discard what you don’t
and try what maybe you think
you could love; and try
what you think you could maybe like
because life isn’t only love and hate:
.
there is no test
you’re meant to take to prove you’re worthy
of one day maybe sitting down and saying
I kinda like comics, I kinda like sewing –
the world isn’t fucking high school, you won’t
be graded at age thirty-eight and half
on how many world series winners
or final fantasy villains your jaded buddies
have forced you to memorise
like times-tables or the endless fucking digits
of pi –
.
no.
you just love what the fuck you want
and one day soon
when those isolationist, fairweather foes
have figured out that circlejerking doesn’t
achieve a cultural mitosits, let alone a cellular –
those myopic bros and internalised misognyists
who oppose your learning even
the jist of forbidden lore – those social
border police
.
are going to have a rude awakening,
because, little sisters, when
you love?
that love moves mountains; you
are everything.
shadyponyloveralmond liked this
basil0saurus liked this
solitarelee liked this snippets-snappets-and-sundries liked this
nikussiaa-blog liked this
berlinbrill reblogged this from fozmeadows
berlinbrill liked this
girlgoddess9 liked this cosmomemory91 liked this
georgentosser liked this
gloobgloobgloob liked this
sprocketwheel liked this
felineadhesive liked this
agirlwithachakram liked this
akisawana reblogged this from aleph-abyssal
akisawana liked this
aleph-abyssal reblogged this from fozmeadows
thehobbitranger reblogged this from einmyriasx-blog
thehobbitranger liked this pashte-writes liked this
the-woman-upstairs liked this
perspicaciouslynameless reblogged this from fozmeadows
smell-the-heliotropes liked this
naekingnaequinnaelairdnaema-blog liked this
pandoraeve reblogged this from fozmeadows and added:
I really, really wish I knew this stuff at age 8, because I had a great deal of self-hate from this kind of thing. I was...
pandoraeve liked this
sarahreesbrennan liked this
domestic-lowlife-blog liked this
sweetdreamr liked this
cleverandengagingtitlegoeshere liked this
saathi1013 liked this
casualchaos liked this
einmyriasx-blog reblogged this from fozmeadows
espressoandsnow liked this
fozmeadows posted this