[INSERT NEW, RELEVENT TITLE] Alternate Expectations of Sexuality Edit I.

Man and woman in separate bathrooms, in stalls or in front of mirrors.

B-Both
F-Female
M-Man

B: They taught me to exist in levels

F: as long as I can remember, I’ve been told to take things

B: sitting down/ (standing up)

B The level of respect I deserve is equal to my height off the ground

F: Mother always said it was my role to bend, find my place in the cracks between men.

M: Father idolized cliff sides, worshipped sudden ruts and odd edges. He’d shake my hand the first time blood dripped from my jersey like badges of honor.

F: -I knew how to swallow, mine down my own throat. Couldn’t always stomach their expectations. Just wife; a woman skirting her own potential, only as alive as my oven mitt.

B: Everyone else

F: looked at me like a dishrag wrung out to dry, water lining crusted dishes

B: I was too dainty

M: I never had hands like hammers. Didn’t want to be made of metal, raised in the mist of wars. Be trained to sniff out Chanel No. 5 on collarbones.

B: I just wanted to be sturdy,

M: Afford down payments on my house

F: If I unleashed my backbone from its straightjacket, walked into the conference room would manhood hang like my suit tie?

M: If I wear a skirt to work today, contrary to lessons of piecemeal mirrors, would the natural blush of my cheek make me woman?

F: Think past my knee-highs.

M: Cuff discomfort under my collar.

B: The workplace is a battlefield,

M: the resurrection of this tradition exists in the way I urinate

F: Nothing will change.

B: I was taught to stall.