In third grade, a boy named Blake - a notorious troublemaker - would chase every girl during class trying to kiss her on the lips. Most of the girls gave in eventually. It was easier to give in than to keep running. When it was my day to be chased, I turned to him, grabbed his glasses off his pudgy face, and stomped on them in front of all the kids on the blacktop. He ran to the principal's office and cried. At that time, it was okay for a girl to do that and normal for boys to cry. In sixth grade, a girl in my year gave head to an eighth grader in the back of the school bus while playing “Truth or Dare.” She told the boys repeatedly that she did not want to do it but the boys just kept telling her to suck it up and that they weren't going
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We invited some of the guys in our grade and someone's older brother bought us a handle of vodka. One of the boys that came sat next to me in my French class, his name was Ryan and he was a senior. I remember playing a simple game of Kings cup. I went from being happily tipsy to being really drunk. Ryan and I started screaming out random sayings in French and he leaned towards me and kissed me. We kissed in the middle of the party with all of our friends cheering, then he led me to Savana’s bedroom. There was a large window next to her bed, everyone suddenly realized that it was a front row seat to what was happening in the bedroom. I don't remember taking my clothes off but apparently we were both completely naked in Savana’s bed. A friend of mine later told me that she had tried opening the door to the bedroom to stop what was happening but that Ryan must have locked the door. They said they pounded on the door, but I don't remember the pounding. I remember the crowd outside of the window, I remember the boys chanting to Ryan saying that he was so lucky to be in bed with me. I remember Savana telling me after that Ryan was such …show more content…
We both have to grin and bear it and persevere. The constant state of war, navigating the relentless obstacle course of testosterone and misogyny, but also having to be taught to be misogynistic and how to fit into manhood. Society teaches humans that we are property to be owned, that we are clay that needs to be molded into the “perfect shape”. But society should not determine that. We should be able to make that decision on our own. We should be able to sculpt ourselves and nobody else should have the right to tell us that it's wrong. I think about how easy it was for me in third grade to stomp on Blake’s glasses and how safe he felt to cry in front of everyone. Now that we are older, I’d be the one getting shit for breaking his glasses and he would've been shunned for shedding tears. Society needs to stop teaching girls that they need to bow down to men, that we always have to be the submissive. On the other hand, society needs to stop teaching men that it's okay to take advantage of women, and that they need to be tough in order to be a guy. These rules of heteronormativity continuously put people into stereotypes, stereotypes that shouldn’t even
We invited some of the guys in our grade and someone's older brother bought us a handle of vodka. One of the boys that came sat next to me in my French class, his name was Ryan and he was a senior. I remember playing a simple game of Kings cup. I went from being happily tipsy to being really drunk. Ryan and I started screaming out random sayings in French and he leaned towards me and kissed me. We kissed in the middle of the party with all of our friends cheering, then he led me to Savana’s bedroom. There was a large window next to her bed, everyone suddenly realized that it was a front row seat to what was happening in the bedroom. I don't remember taking my clothes off but apparently we were both completely naked in Savana’s bed. A friend of mine later told me that she had tried opening the door to the bedroom to stop what was happening but that Ryan must have locked the door. They said they pounded on the door, but I don't remember the pounding. I remember the crowd outside of the window, I remember the boys chanting to Ryan saying that he was so lucky to be in bed with me. I remember Savana telling me after that Ryan was such …show more content…
We both have to grin and bear it and persevere. The constant state of war, navigating the relentless obstacle course of testosterone and misogyny, but also having to be taught to be misogynistic and how to fit into manhood. Society teaches humans that we are property to be owned, that we are clay that needs to be molded into the “perfect shape”. But society should not determine that. We should be able to make that decision on our own. We should be able to sculpt ourselves and nobody else should have the right to tell us that it's wrong. I think about how easy it was for me in third grade to stomp on Blake’s glasses and how safe he felt to cry in front of everyone. Now that we are older, I’d be the one getting shit for breaking his glasses and he would've been shunned for shedding tears. Society needs to stop teaching girls that they need to bow down to men, that we always have to be the submissive. On the other hand, society needs to stop teaching men that it's okay to take advantage of women, and that they need to be tough in order to be a guy. These rules of heteronormativity continuously put people into stereotypes, stereotypes that shouldn’t even