Song If I Were A Boy

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Very soon, she's be told to stop the somersault because You're a girl.
Photo Credit: online pic. 

I’m not aware of a podcast where women talk about how they sometimes wished they were boys when they were growing up. Should someone start such a platform, the common thread would be the reason for that wish. Girls wished they were boys for freedom, like their brothers and cousins.

There are millions of girls growing up in closed societies where the high fence is religion. They don’t wear ‘sexy’ clothes like us. They cover up everything when they are in public. They know parents will probably choose husbands in the same fence.  Boys and girls, male and female in such societies live in different spaces under one roof and buildings used for religion.

Therefore, it will be easy to assume that they never question their existence because it is upfront. Religion decides who, what, why, where and when. But they do, sing Beyonce’s song If I were A Boy like their western counterparts. Both of them wanted to be boys for one thing. Freedom.

1. Girls wanted to stay out late like their brothers.

2. Girls wanted to wear trousers like their brothers, jump and run without an adult saying: Stop that. You’re a girl.

3. Girls wanted to somersault like their brothers without being admonished. Stop that. You’re a girl.

4. Girls did not want their brothers to copy adults, boss them around and demand food and clean clothes.

5. Girls wanted to play cricket, soccer and basketball with their brothers.

They did not ask doctors to cut their breasts and re-engineer them to be trans men. Their parents did not give them puberty blockers. They got over the wish to be boys and are now happy in their skin.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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