Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Thousand: Two Hundred Eighty

a wall I tried to make man-shaped. But I knew people saw through it. They called me names. You know, when a boy in gym class in high school, thinking to insult me, maybe it was the worst thing he could think of to say, called me Woman. Called me woman. I remember. I was puzzled that he thought that was a bad thing. But what I remember most was the feeling, how right it was. Woman. That was what I was. Would be someday. If I was luckier than I’d ever been up to that point. I almost loved

2 comments:

Elisabeth said...

Funny form of insult that - to call a man a woman. And yet it's meant to bite, and on most instances it does.

Glenn Ingersoll said...

Yeah. A boy in gym class called me Woman. As an insult it mystified me. There were so many women I admired, from my mother to favorite teachers and writers. I don't remember what I did. I probably didn't do anything, just tried to ignore him. That was the usual strategy when confronted with "teasing."