You wanna give me a shiner

Cause I look like this

And I got a vagina?

See, I'm familiar with this Gender Game

I've played this war many times before

On this playground called my identity

When puberty hit like dodge balls

And freeze-tagged as sissy-fagged

My best friend dissed me- common interests

Different anatomy

See, vagina meant quieter, caretaker, peacemaker

Vagina meant keeping lips closed, keeping bodies posed

Vagina was silent dolls and no action toys

Vagina was punches when I played with the boys

So I learned to take it in the stomach, I learned to fight to make friends

And as I learned to make that bullshit end

Vagina became a slippery slide for my little finger

Vagina became a quiver that lingered

Vagina became what I looked for, worked for, stood for

I "Viva La Vagina'd all over the place!"

I revitalized vagina's grace, I discovered vagina's taste

I became a fine diner, put my face in vagina after vagina

And then I was faced with some other lip-service

Putting me in my place

That Vagina should not be liberator

But dictator

Of the shoes we wear. The hair we crop

The palms we clasp. The way we walk

The space we use. The threads we choose

Well, I refuse to follow suit

Cause I gotta confess, my straight jacket is a dress

You know it used to be a crime

To wear clothes that didn't scream

"Vagin-A!"

I wear these shoes so I can move with my own easy spirit

I don't shave my legs cause

It gets cold. Besides, my legs rebel

Against the bloody hell of

Shaved and sliced

And since when is my body hair something to judge?

Is furry a male privilege-

Or a patriarchal plot by Gillette?

I don't cut my nails cause I've got hammering to do

I'm pounding out my path as I cruise this gender landscape

As I peruse the choice between silence and

Violence

Matthew Shepard was bent, so you hang him to a fence

Brandon Teena was murdered as a liar for hiding his vagina

And I can't even sit

In a restaurant without causing a stir:

"Whaddya have sir? Whaddya have sir? Whaddya have sir?"

I have a Vagina!

Yes, I've got a vagina and you can still call me sir

Cause I can't cure

This visual disease of yours

But I don't give a damn about "Sir" or "Ma'am"

So, in the "F" or "M" boxes they give

I forgive myself for not fitting in

And blame the world for lack of clarity

I deliberate

Penis? I got one y'know. I write down "d" for dildo

I write down "D" for

"Don't know," I fill in "F" for

Fi-fie-foe male!

Yes, I'm a giant vagina!

And I am too big for these boxes they give

Too real for this Gender Toyland

Built over soiled contradictions

With Barbie bricks and Ken cornerstones

Built over the skulls and bones of our Transgendered Ancestors

Danger:

She-men working above. And beyond. You

Yes, we are Deconstruction Workers

We are exposing unfounded bedrocks

That bed us to one sex, that wed us to one gender

We are overturning those stones

We are throwing them back

We are making revolution

A gender evolution

We are invoking strategy, we are revoking shame

And we are calling it

We are calling it

Refusal to be Named