I am man enough to be human

From Athens Boys Choir’s spoken word

I’m man enough to swish a hip and sashay you say?
Shoot I ain’t afraid to pierce a titty and swear and spit and all that shit
I’m man enough to be homosexual, heterosexual, metro-fucking-sexual
System testable without testicles,
a spectacle in ladies’ rooms cause I’m man enough, 
a spectacle in mens’ room cause I’m not…man enough?

Shoot I’m man enough to wear ladies’ panties and still. call them. panties.
Anyways, what is a man? What is a man? WHAT IS A MAN?
See I was a woman beforehand,
raised a girl before
what makes the man?
Culturally we make the man, socially we raise the man.
Ask my parents, they’ll understand.
Tell you I was daughter before son, and
still today I make a lousy one…

I was, a, tomboy, I ran to boy things, man things,
lesbian tendencies drove me to identify sexually,
gave excuses for my gender inadequacies.
Now questionin’ t, strappin’ down my boobies
Yes I said boobies, excussse me.
Years pass, by,
and it seems I’m always transfixed on some sort of
transformation, transmission from brain relayed to blank pages.
Paper, pen in hands reminding me I am man enough to be human,
I am man enough to be human
I am man enough to be human
I AM MAN ENOUGH TO BE HUMAN
I knew men dedicated to my true plan to expose
pronouns as a weapon.

There’s a gender box I’m choosin’ not to check in
so, check to a new you, and,
unwind that pronoun that binds you.

Gender’s more than the sex they assign you.
Sex is more than the gender they assign you.
Gender’s more than the sex they assign you.
Sex is more than the gender they assign you.

So I do the real you and stick to the, true you,
and I’ll be androgyny, the ability to live between,
transcending not trendsetting, transgender’s the word I mean.
Trans around, not found, on either. side. of the gender slide.
Yeah, I resist ‘em when I’m told to pick one

Dismiss ‘em when they fit me for a label that only half suits me
Nah, I don’t need that shit to lift me up, or,
break me down, or ground me into pieces for my complete being caught,
anarchy caught, noncomformity.
Yeah, there’s lots of words in the dictionary but not one
that fits wholly inside me.

Plus, we got this stupid. social. binary vocabulary
turning transman to half-life, half-man,
confusing transgender with transluscence,
a, watered down version looking for conversion
from a liquid to a solid state.

See there’s always something behind the name,
blocking our vision of forward terrain.
Well I’m ascending to planes with no label restrained
I’m feeling too free for four walls now peelin’, revealin’,
all of the above.

discrimination

Today we went out to eat at a wonderful new place that opened in our area called Batten's Corner. It has really good food. While we were there we had a really great waiter. He was really really good. We saw something though that made me so mad. The people sitting close to us had the same great waiter but when they went to leave I heard the wife say to the husband about not leaving this wonderful waiter a tip because of the fact that he was gay. This made me so mad. What does the sexuality of this great waiter have to do with anything? He did his job and he did it very well. The husband said to her "yeah, but we shouldn't judge" and he put down one dollar for a tip. I had heard that things like this happen sometimes but to be sitting next table over when it happened.....It made me so mad I started shaking. He sexuality should have nothing to do with his tip 

In Memory

Reading Pride 2012

Reading Pride 2012 at Centre Park Reading. 
It was a great day with tons of fun. I got a great necklace, bracelet, and a Reading Pride T-shirt.




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
  
 
 
 
 

Shut Up

Shut Up
by Anne Tibbets

I was excited to get this book in the mail. I got this book for free through Goodreads. I was excited because the book sounded really interesting.

I was even more excited to open the book and see that Anne Tibbets signed the book. I love that she took the time to sign it for me. Thank you Anne for signing it and for writing this book.

Now on to the book.....

Mary's older sister, Gwen, has royally screwed up her life. Not only is Gwen pregnant at seventeen, but she's also decided to marry The Creep who knocked her up.

Now Mary is powerless to stop her family from imploding. Her parents are freaking out, and to top it off The Creep has a gross fascination with Mary while Gwen enjoys teasing her to tears for sport.

Despite her brother's advice to shut up, Mary can't keep her trap closed and manages to piss off Mom so much it comes to blows.

Mary doesn't know what to do, and all her attempts to get help are rejected. When she finally plans her escape, she fails to consider how it could destroy them all.

It is not a huge book at under 125 pages, but the length of a book isn't everything. A book doesn't have to have 300 or more pages to be a good book and this isn't just a good book...it is a great book. It's a short book that you won't forget about anytime soon.

I would put this book on a MUST READ list. I think that everyone 16+ should read this book.

This book really touched me. I don't know how to put into words the way that this book moved me other then to say that I really think that people should read this book.

If you've ever felt like you weren't good enough, you couldn't do anything right, have been belittled or bullied, "Shut Up" is a must read.

For more information about Anne, visit her website at www.AnneTibbets.com, her blog at http://writeforcoffee.blogspot.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AnneTibbetsAuthor

I give this book a 5 out of 5


FTC Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I was not monetarily compensated for my opinion.

truths

Glow

Glow (Sky Chasers #1)
by Amy Kathleen Ryan

What if you were bound for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you'd been promised to since birth, and one unexpected violent attack made survival—not love—the issue?

Out in the murky nebula lurks an unseen enemy: the New Horizon. On its way to populate a distant planet in the wake of Earth's collapse, the ship's crew has been unable to conceive a generation to continue its mission. They need young girls desperately, or their zealous leader's efforts will fail. Onboard their sister ship, the Empyrean, the unsuspecting families don't know an attack is being mounted that could claim the most important among them...

Fifteen-year-old Waverly is part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space; she was born on the Empyrean, and the large farming vessel is all she knows. Her concerns are those of any teenager—until Kieran Alden proposes to her. The handsome captain-to-be has everything Waverly could ever want in a husband, and with the pressure to start having children, everyone is sure he's the best choice. Except for Waverly, who wants more from life than marriage—and is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.

But when the Empyrean faces sudden attack by their assumed allies, they quickly find out that the enemies aren't all from the outside.

I received this book for free through GoodReads First Read.

Waverly is a young girl. She feels like there is more to her life then just getting married and having children but she is expected to get married and have children while young so she doesn't seem to have much choice. This book takes place on a spaceship and I tend to stay away from spaceship books but this book was great.

One thing though I hate when books end in a cliffhanger. I really hate when authors do that. It makes me want to stop reading the series when they do that because I hate waiting for the next book to come out to see what happens.

Dear writers...if you are a good write you do not need to end a book in a cliffhanger to get us to read the next one. Thank you.

There was also some religion vs atheism parts to the story. The New Horizon, holds the religious colonists, and the Empyrean,  holds the non-religious colonists. She does a good job of showing how people use belief in god as a way to wield power and how religion can be used as a tool.

This book got quite dark in some of the things that it talked about and addressed but I really feel that it helped make the book what it is. I like that the author did not shy away from the dar.

I think if you like Battlestar Galactica then you should give this book a try.
4 out of 5 stars