Stories Matter. Many Stories Matter.

The Problem With Gender Is That It Prescribes How We Should Be Rather Than Recognizing How We Are. Imagine How Much Happier We Would Be, How Much Freer To Be Our True Individual Selves, If We Didn't Have The Weight Of Gender Expectations.

There Were People Thrice Her Size On The Trenton Platform And She Looked Admiringly At One Of Them, A Woman In A Very Short Skirt. She Thought Nothing Of Slender Legs Shown Off In Miniskirts--it Was Safe And Easy, After All, To Display Legs Of Which The World Approved--but The Fat Woman's Act Was About The Quiet Conviction That One Shared Only With Oneself, A Sense Of Rightness That Others Failed To See.

We Teach Girls To Shrink Themselves, To Make Themselves Smaller. We Say To Girls: 'you Can Have Ambition, But Not Too Much. You Should Aim To Be Successful, But Not Too Successful. Otherwise, You Will Threaten The Man.' Because I Am Female, I Am Expected To Aspire To Marriage. I Am Expected To Make My Life Choices, Always Keeping In Mind That Marriage Is The Most Important. Now, Marriage Can Be A Source Of Joy And Love And Mutual Support, But Why Do We Teach Girls To Aspire To Marriage And We Don't Teach Boys The Same?

She Could Not Complain About Not Having Shoes When The Person She Was Talking To Had No Legs.

I Had Consumed A Lot Of American Culture, But I Was Not Quite Prepared For The Reality Of American Poverty.