Are You This Mean?

When I was little I had short hair and some laughed and said, “you look like a boy; are you a boy?” 

When I was 13 I grew breasts on my stick figure frame many were so uncomfortable they stared, “don’t let those things give you a black eye”.  

When I was 15 someone wrote about me in the school paper, because they thought I needed to shave. “I hope Maggie gets a razor and soap for Christmas so she can learn some hygiene”. 

When I was 17 the intensity of my gaze was too much for school administrators, “Your eyes look strange are you on drugs?” 

 Even now as an adult I have been made the butt of jokes because I don’t always subscribe to the norms of my cultures grooming and style standards. 

I wonder, are these people this mean to themselves? Do they berate and critique this beautiful form they are inhabiting? Do you? 

We have so much to offer; our love, our ideas, our time and energy. Spending our energy forcing our bodies into a prescribed ideal is a waste. Find your ideal. Be you. We need what you have to offer.