inkskinned:

how many baby dolls were given to girls who didn’t want to be mothers. who have to look their families in the eyes and refuse. how many pink blankets, baby-be-mine, mothering practice did we give to girls who just wanted a truck, a toolbox, a science textbook. how many times did we forget that both can exist in the same person. how many arguments were never had because ladies don’t raise their voice; how many women think they are too weak to leave because they’re nothing without a home. how many girls look at their lives as finishing at 25, no longer young and pretty. see the finish line as being married. how many women have children not out of want of them: but only because it seems like something that should happen.

how many screwdrivers were given to boys who didn’t want to fix other people’s mistakes. who have to tell their parents that they’re not into violence. how many helmets, tiny cars, live-fast-die-hard examples did we give to little boys who wanted to be gentle, to read, to play with dollies. how many times did we refuse to let him be soft at all. how many boys feel comfortable with the idea of fatherhood, trapped between the fear that they will hate being married and the realization they have no idea how to handle child rearing. have words they cannot say bubbling up inside of them. how many marriages have been ruined over a lack of communication. how many men sit in silence in their own homes, strangely isolated; being unable to be homemakers without peer taunting, being unable to be absent without feeling nothing.

how many people have we broken. how many times have we ruined the futures of our children. was it so important to us that they only wear blue. was it so important to us that they never played trucks in school. what did we do.