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See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading (C) her poem What We Are Supposed to Do live 7/30/14 at Chicago’s open mic the Café Gallery

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poem What We Are Supposed to Do live 7/30/14 at Chicago’s open mic the Café Gallery (Edge Detection)

What We Are Supposed To Do Janet Kuypers 6&#$047;10/99 I played with Barbies for years I made clothes for the female dolls I never thought about the fact that their toes were always poinged and their breats were always hard and plastic maybe those pointed feet said something about how women are always supposed to stand on their toes to make their legs look better for men to make it harder for them to walk I mean, how are you supposed to go around in your life always walking around on your toes? maybe those pointed feet said something about how being short is a bad thing and being taller like a man is a better thing maybe those plastic breasts said something about plastic surgery and how women should be better how men want women with bigger breasts how they want something they can look at and odjectify something to make them novel and something less than a man maybe those plastic breasts said something about how breasts should be perky and never sag like having breasts actually do, if you have them I mean, Barbies never had bras because they never needed them witheternally perky plastic breasts and plastic skin and a plastic head that was hollow inside and a plastic everything I can take a Barbis doll now and squeeze her head and it just crunches like well, a big piece of plastic because well, there’s nothing in there I mean, aren’t girls not supposed to have brains anyway? This was how we were trained This is what we are supposed to do and they still teach this and I don’t know how to fight against all these years of a slanted view of how men view women and how women view women I can look at Barbies and think that there is nothing inside of them there is nothing real to them and it is not the Barbie that bothers me it is all of the ideas that come with it Copyright Janet Kuypers. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission.