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Sonnet on Gender

When girls can do the things boys used to do,
What things can boys do now to girls impress?
Your toxic masculinity's turned blue;
I really would prefer you wear a dress.
I'm really not impressed with strutting spivs,
Marlene would outrank you in a wink;
Victoria and Victor in me gives
Me balance on the tightrope, don't you think?

Unlike blue Betty, I don't see red mist,
My typewriter won't through the window hurl.
Control your hormones, breathe, unclench your fist;
Your gonads grant you nothing, little girl. 
So woman-up, as no man ever said;
Your bluster's limp, your gender's in your head. 


© Sara Nicola Ruth 

Big up

⛱ a gem from the repository of all human wisdom that is Clueless (1995) the American comedy loosely based on Jane Austen‘s 1815 novel Emma, on the subject of why girls shouldn’t skateboard…

Travis: Well, ’cause if girls did it, what would guys do to impress them? 

The clip is at 1m 24s in this compilation vid ⬇️

⛱ the gender-busting and brilliant Marlene Dietrich (1901-92). From her New York Times obituary:

Her manner, the critic Kenneth Tynan wrote, was that of “a serpentine lasso whereby her voice casually winds itself around our most vulnerable fantasies.”

“She has sex but no positive gender,” Tynan wrote. “Her masculinity appeals to women and her sexuality to men.”

⛱ the gender-bending lunacy of Victor/ Victoria (1982) where Julie Andrews plays a broke singer called Victoria who agrees to pose as Count Victor Grazinski, a gay Polish female impersonator. In other words, she’s a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman. 

⛱ Béatrice Dalle as the ultimate poster girl for Pre-Menstrual Syndrome in French film Betty Blue (1986) throwing the typewriter out the window on a hormone trip.

When I wrote this sonnet I hadn’t seen the film since it was released in 1986, and then on the very day I finished this set of sonnets it was shown on TV. I had remembered it wrong: Betty does wrestle with a typewriter at one point, but what she throws out of the window is actually a record player. I haven’t found the clip anywhere which surprises me as it’s an iconic scene.

Sara without an H > this collection: Pennies From Heaven > Awakening > Miracles > Love > Secrets > Humanity > Beauty > Gender > Family > Connection > Revolution >> next collection: Major Arcana