Teach children to be kind.

Pull down your skirt
Pull up your top
Push down your socks
Wear mascara, wear eyeliner, that stuff is hot

Wear small earrings
Don’t wear hoops
Don’t wear vests, or crop tops
You look far to masculine in a suit

Take off your makeup
Don’t cake your face
Don’t pose like that
Don’t drink that, I think its laced

Don’t go out too late
Don’t walk out on your own
Carry keys between your fingers
Act like you are on the phone

To your boyfriend.
Right? Because a man saves the day
And if a man is in involved
The perverts go away

And if you meet a nice boy
Then other creeps won’t look twice
And he can fix broken things
You can make the house look nice.


But why are we solving
This misogynistic attack
By focusing on girls
And the virtues they lack.

Rather than telling little boys
Hitting is not okay
And girls don’t run like girls
Whatever their t-shirt quotes might say.

And why are girl’s toys
Exclusive to just pink
And feminine, and gentle
Things not requiring them to think

Whilst boys contain action
And fighting, and blue
And putting together chemicals
Solving ‘murderous’ clues.

So I merely suggest
That we begin from the start
Teach boys to be gentle
Embrace music, dance and art

Allow boys to cry
Allows boys to explore
Princess dresses and tiaras
Soften the hyper-masculine core


Then teach girls to be strong
Play with mud and dirt
Maybe they’ll learn to care less about their hair
And the brand of their shirt

If maybe we start here
Then in 20 years time
Better adults emerge
Who have learnt to be kind.