I was trained by my mother   When I heard your complaints
in all the ways              I didn't know whether
of chivalry,                 to empathize
etiquette,                   or rip your throat out,
and gentility                but I did empathize
of the upper middle class.   while wishing you'd shut the fuck up.

She would nitpick            I thought I'd suffer
on my behaviors              for the feminine cause
and tell me if I failed      but you all decided
in my training,              I wasn't worth keeping.
no lady was ever going       I just bowed my head
                             Wondering if those overgeneralizations
To want me.                  included me.

She got mad if I didn't      Some of you expected gentlemanly gestures
open doors for her.          like it was required,
                             with little in return,
                             except nagging if I forgot.
                
She used to tell me          I listened to all your body image
all the time                 problems, and then I thought 
I was getting too fat.       I wasn't good enough for any of you
                             since I didn't have a hunky enough body.
She didn't seem to care      One of the nicer lot of you confessed
that her folks manipulated   that I sounded like a diet-obsessed woman.
me with weight, too.

                  I trusted you.  I gave you my love.

                             I walked into a trap without knowing it.
                             Now I wince whenever I think of terrible
                             stories you told about your abuse.
                             I even thought I was responsible for one of 
                             you, because you let me drown in some kind
                             of hell for false accusations.
                             Now I'd go apeshit for you just to give    
                             some of those pompous bastards what they   
                                  deserved.

I know I said some bizarre   You don't know how much it hurt to be    
things when I was mentally   rejected.  I didn't know how to approach
ill, *madre*, but I wish     you, so I hid with women clad only in skin 
you would                    on glossy pages.
have been more patient       I knew I'd never learn, so I continued     
with me.                     to try-- even read the relationship 
I never could count on how   articles in all the fashion magazines
I would feel, so I'd drown   and sometimes in books.
in some stimulus just for 
something                    When you decided to stay for a while,
predictable.                 I was always afraid I'd lose you.
                             Never thought some of you would think
She couldn't handle my       the same thing
sister coming out, so I      because I was some kind of fence-sitting
figured what she'd say about queer.
me.                          I didn't think I could ever trust the boys
                             anyway.

                             I tried to live what was right,
                             but you would call me a hypocrite
                             if I stumbled.

                So I finally found a woman
                who thinks you're all full of shit.
                I guess I didn't expect another
                can of nightcrawlers, though.

                I suppose co-dependency dies hard.
                And excuse me
                if I feel like saying
                some feminists should eat shit and die.

8 responses total.

How do you intend the two-column bits to be read?  Is this for two voices,
or one reading across, or what?  
Interesting presentation regardless, though, and appropriate to the subject.
The ending's a little strong, and IMO a little misleading; you should pick
a word other than "feminists," or at least modify the phrasing a little,
unless you're trying to piss people off :)

"so I hid with the women clad only in skin on glossy pages"....._nice_
line....

It's for two voices.  It was hard for me to format it much clearer.

You're free to your opinion-- note the preceding key word "some."  My 
youngest sister is a first-wave feminist, and I don't have a problem 
with that.  However, I do have a problem with a lot of the modern 
rhetoric and its bullshit notions of empowerment, especially among 
those that complain the loudest.  I am so FUCKING sick and tired 
of 'men are so this' and that crap.  I figured that if I tried to be 
the best I could be, and be a good man, I wouldn't hear it so much.

But oh no.  I got treated like shit.  I still have to walk on pins and 
needles so my mother won't yap so much.  My wife is the first woman who 
hasn't dumped me.. she has had to assure me a time or two that she 
won't leave, even in spite of what I've done..

I hope female comics will kill those idiot male-bashing jokes.  You 
kick my ass, beware, I might just kick back.

fuck, I knew someone wouldn't understand

Clarification: I partly agree with the sentiment, partly disagree, and on the
whole would rather not get into a discussion of that issue in this item. 
Suffice to say I sypmathize.  So I have no personal objection to the line.

Rather, I was predicting that if you were to perform this or share it more
widely -- particularly if you were to perform it, since nuances get lost if
you only hear something once through -- a significant number of people would
misunderstand and get a little angry.  

My prediction may also be wrong, of course.  It's just a guess.

This does a great job of illustrating the frustration of being a
designated baddie.  If I can take a stab at it, you are saying
something like racial profiling is to people of color as politically
correct feminism is to males?
 
Hmmm.  Using that as an image, it might be possible to do some image
jiu-jitsu on people who refuse to examine their premises.  You're
welcome to use this, though I might also.

nice of you to give permission, russ.  d=

resp:3  Well, making them angry is almost the point-- they hurt you-- 
you hurt 'em back, y'know?

resp:4 That's half of it-- the idea that modern feminism tends to 
stereotype males-- and even females, too.  You wouldn't believe how 
some particular tenets really piss some women off.

But the other half is just what it reads on the surface: a frustrating 
retaliation.  I've been so conditioned to please the women in my life 
that radical feminazi rant enflames me.  My demons in that direction 
rage hard enough that some overgeneralistic crap like that is enough to 
summon them. 

man, I have missed out on quite a bit around here! while the discussion sounds
like it's come to a head; I thought I might just add that I know *exactly*
how Jon feels.(lot of stories that really demonstate why "nice guys always
finish last"). But I like how "visually" your poem breaks out of the "norm",
and challenges us to chase both the new *structure* as well as your agnst @
an obviously disturbing topic :). I also like how you grouped your ideas, kept
things nice and tidy for me...but that's probably cos I know where you're
coming from.

As I may already have said.  I like this 
one, too.

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