Don’t be too thin, don’t be too fat,
No, no, no don’t sit like that,
Stand up tall with your head held high,
Everyone else acts like a lady so why don’t I?
Catchy right?
From the day I was born I was told what to do,
How to dress, how to act, how to ask “How are you?”
Always say thank you, always be polite,
Always remember to act “lady-like.”
I was punished when I didn’t do it
I had to teach myself to unlearn it
And now that I’m older I see things differently
I want control over my own decisions
But when that happens, I get all the blame
No matter what anyone else happens to say.
I can’t even walk to my car without leering eyes on me
And all anyone seems to wonder is what I was wearing
And even if I am believed I am still the one being punished
Being told “well don’t do that anymore you should know better than this”
Now tell me why I can’t go on a walk without being followed
Without being watched or someone trying to feel me up from top to bottom
Tell me why I had to run to a friend’s house and be driven home for protection
Because if I had said something HE would have taken that as rejection
And God forbid that happened because then I deserve everything I would’ve gotten
Are his future possibilities really more important than my current reality?
It’s not lady-like to speak up,
It’s not lady-like to lash out,
It’s lady-like to shut up and shut down
But not me, not a chance
I will scream at the top of my lungs
I will laugh and I will cry while everyone else does this stupid little dance
“Act like a lady?”
How about you walk in my shoes
And the day you can, you tell me what you would do.
