Gender Game

You wanna give me a shiner
Cause I look like this
And I got a vagina?
See, I m familiar with this Gender Game
I ve played this war many times before
On this playground called my identity
When puberty hit like dodge balls
And freeze-tagged as sissy-fagged
My best friend dissed me- common interests
Different anatomy
See, vagina meant quieter, caretaker, peacemaker
Vagina meant keeping lips closed, keeping bodies posed
Vagina was silent dolls and no action toys
Vagina was punches when I played with the boys
So I learned to take it in the stomach, I learned to Fight to make friends
And as I learned to make that bullshit end
Vagina became a slippery slide for my little finger
Vagina became a quiver that lingered
Vagina became what I looked for, worked for, stood for
I «Viva La Vagina d all over the place!»
I revitalized Vagina s grace, I discovered vagina s taste
I became a fine diner. Put my face in vagina after vagina
And then I was faced with some other lipservice
Putting me in my place
That Vagina should not be liberator
But dictator
Of the shoes we wear. The hair we crop
The palms we clasp. The way we walk
The space we use. The threads we choose
Well, I refuse to follow suit
Cause I gotta confess, my straight jacket is a dress
You know it used to be a crime
To wear clothes that didn t scream
I wear these shoes so I can move with my own easy spirit
I don t shave my legs cause
It gets cold. Besides, my legs rebel
Against the bloody hell of
Shaved and sliced
And since when is my body hair something to judge?
Is furry a male privilege-
Or a patriarchal plot by gillette?
I don t cut my nails cause I ve got hammering to do
I m pounding out my path as I cruise this gender landscape
As I peruse the choice between silence and
Violence
Matthew Shepard was bent, so you hang him to a fence
Brandon Teena was murdered as a liar for hiding his
Vagina. And I can t even sit
In a restaurant without causing a stir:
«Whaddya have sir? Whaddya have sir? Whaddya have sir?»
I have a Vagina!
Yes, I ve got a vagina and you can still call me sir
Cause I can t cure
This visual disease of yours
But I don t give a damn about «Sir» or «Ma am»
So, in the «F» or «M» boxes they give
I forgive myself for not fitting in
And blame the world for lack of clarity
I deliberate
Penis? I got one y know. I write down «d» for dildo
I write down «D» for
«Don t know,» I fill in «F» for
Fi-fie-foe male!
Yes, I m a giant Vagina!
And I am too big for these boxes they give
Too real for this Gender Toyland
Built over soiled contradictions
With Barbie bricks and Ken cornerstones
Built over the skulls and bones of our Transgendered Ancestors
Danger:
She-men working above. And beyond. You
Yes, we are Deconstruction Workers
We are exposing unfounded bedrocks
That bed us to one sex, that wed us to one gender
We are overturning those stones
We are throwing them back
We are making revolution
A gender evolution
We are invoking strategy, we are revoking shame
And we are calling it. We are calling it
Refusal to be Named