Jordan

“Maybe all over the world there were daughters who knew their mothers as young girls and old women, inside and out, deep. I wasn’t one of them.”
― Jacqueline Woodson, Red at the Bone

“I wanted more, though — a hug, a kindness whispered into my ear. I wanted her to tell me I was beautiful… that she loved me… but instead, she got up.”
― Jacqueline Woodson, Red at the Bone

“The thing about shame is that it eats at you until it fully consumes you. You no longer need people telling you to not dress like that; you already do it to yourself. You no longer need your family telling you to be quiet; you already do it to yourself. You edit yourself and at some point, it becomes so normal that you can’t even tell that you’re doing it.”
― Alok Vaid-Menon, Beyond the Gender Binary

“Babies are born and divided into one of two categories… boy or girl, which affects how we treat the baby when they cry, what clothes we dress them in, what toys they’re allowed to play with… Nothing is spared; we mark everything — the colors, emotions, relationships, even food… This is done so consistently and with so much authority that we don’t even recognize that we are doing it…

Depending on whether we call them a boy or girl, we assign each a narrative — we tell some children they are strong, and others they are weak. We tell some they can express themselves, and others they should not have feelings. We tell some their worth comes from doing harm, and tell others their worth comes from accepting it.”
― Alok Vaid-Menon, Beyond the Gender Binary