Ooh, let me try my own hand at improvised poetry. A bit more free-form.
They used to say:
To be a real man, you need behave like one.
To be a real man, you need go to the army.
To be a real man, you need lose your virginity, to a prostitute if need be.
To be a real man, you need in the locker rooms, to talk about the sluts you've *censored*ed, and treat women like dirt.
You can definitely not be a real man:
if you are gentle
if you don't swear
definitely not a real man:
if you want to kiss other men
if you wear dresses
It's a strange form of progress,
an admission of defeat,
when they concede,
when they retreat from all that nonsense they used to preach,
and say --
to be a real man, it's not actually about behaviour and societal roles,
we were only making that up,
they now say:
to be a real man, you need simply have a penis.
But you must have had it from birth.
Surgically provided ones don't count.
For some reason, that only they understand.
Eh, whatever.
They were stupid then,
and they remain stupid now.
