To be a man







A man,
A man.
I wasn't one until the cut*.



When the doctor bend into my thighs with his scissors,
I wasn't one.
I wasn't one,
Until he did it!

Made those shiny blades slice through my fore skin.
And my dad yelled it!

Said. “My son! My son! You are now a man."
And I bled and smiled at him,
At four,
I had earned it!
I could now sit in the presence of men,
Wasn't allowed to meander about the kitchen,
Couldn't cry, couldn't blabber about,
A man. I had become one.

My father made it known first hand that to be a man was to be earned.
My mother reiterated,
“No one is a man unless he earns it.
A man is to be one or be nothing!"

Even women could be men.
When they perform well in school,
Take care of their families,
Buy their own things,
It is said.

“She does it so well. She does it just like A man!"

My mother and grandmother were men!



So I earned it with the cut,
I became a young man,

But that title is not like something you earn and it becomes yours,
It is like a rental houses. Business Licences, health.
You have to keep earning it.
It doesn't matter how much you've accomplished to earn it in the past
You loose it once,
You are not a man!
You do not have it.

Society defined it next;
It said in low yet stern tones,
“Men were to be good at maths"
In school,
And men are be always right,
In debates,
“And men were to be athletes and never be outshone by women."
In sports.
So phrases like “you run like a woman thrived."
I still do not know what that means.

A man
It continued,
To be a man.
You have to earn your wife.
And she isn't yours unless you continue to earn her!

To be a man,
You have to be terribly brute, at times,
To stand for a lady even when she's wrong,
To always be defensive.
You are never to be sick.
Men are never sick!
Are the children yours?
You are never their father if you can't provide,
If they are not your seed.
If you sit around the house and wash and clean and cook by will,
You are not man!
In fact you are not even the man of the house.
It doesn't matter that you built it or that you pay its rent and feed its people.

How many girls have you been with?
It asks of the youth.
How many do you have?
How many degrees, how much money??
.
To be a man,
As I have seen
It's like success, it's payment is due everytime.
I've seen successful men who failed and are no longer men.
.
I have seen men without bass and they are not regarded as men,
I have seen fathers who baby sit, and take their children to school,
And they have their families happy.
But they are not men!
.
A man has to marry,
They say,
To have,
To be a stone, astoner a smoker, a drunk.
A man can not complain,
A man can not show feelings.
A man can not sow,
A man. Has to sit on top of women!
Society defines ,
And Family,
And Workplaces,
And Governments,
Even some women!
Many of which walk around chanting equality, equity and feminism.
They want this man.
They say in soft low tones.
But it's a standard.
.
.
.
.
“Are you a man?"
They say,
And a man thinks twice about saying he's a chef at Hilton hotel,
And he thinks about saying he's a nurse,
And he amplifies his voice to produce atleast some bass,
And he digs into his pockets for some coins some notes,
And he thinks of his schooling, "Do I do engineering?
Is she better learned than me?
Does she earn more salary?
Is she older than I?
Is she in the army?
Are her parents richer than my mine??"
.
To be male is not to be a man,
When born, males are not men,
In Sparta,
They'd be abandoned somewhere upon birth to earn this right.
In modern day societies,
It's questions,
They are bombarded with questions bitter than lemons.
Questions strong enough to distabililze all confidence;
Self confidence, self love, self worth,
Like what is the status down there???
Are you. A man?
.
They earn their man hood,
Loose it some times then earn it back if they can.
.
There's no identity for them unless they do what has been prescribed to their gender by society.
They have none.
.
So my question is,
.
In a world where we are redefining what it means to be a woman.
Do you think what we have defined to be a man still holds?
.
Thee logophile ( on all social media sites)


© Thee logophile