Pink is pretty and bravery blue (or so we’ve been told)

forgetting that once upon a time

Victorians held the opposite view-

so when will we stop

teaching young children

that pink, make up, Barbie dolls and dresses are for girls

whilst boys have blue, guns and action heroes?

 

When will it end?

 

Women raised to believe they need saving,

their short skirts sexualised from infancy,

infants expected to be raised by their mothers,

not fathers, these men taught to save everyone:

except for themselves.

Men don’t cry. Feeling is for women.

Womanhood is weakness. Yet the toxicity of your masculinity

erodes our society: suicide the biggest killer of men under forty-five.

 

When will it end?

 

A century on since (some) women

gained suffrage, our rage suppressed

they say we have it all, after decades of denied degrees and careers

women can do more than ever before (but still for less pay)

whilst social services get cut, but our women can juggle babies

and caring for elderly parents, or exchange family

for career progression, ever reaching

to a glass ceiling she can only gaze through

at men who can hold the highest powers in the land.

Nobody asks where those hands

have been, all those women you felt up

silenced, ashamed.

 

When will it end?

 

This should not be a battle between us.

A false dichotomy pits us against one another

in binary, rather than recognise gender fluidity.

 

Keep using your voice,

unite, deny those in power the power of division.

We do not come from separate planets,

but share

one earth.

 

 

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Lauren Winson is a writer and spoken word poet, currently studying English with Creative Writing at the University of Nottingham. She has performed at open mics across Derby and Nottingham, including Poetry is Dead Good, She Speaks and at Scarthin Books. Alongside contributing poetry, she also writes articles for Impact, a student-run magazine, and enjoys reading books for Scarthins bookclub.