“I love you.”

“I’m grateful for you.”

“Thankyou. I mean it, thankyou.”

“I don’t agree.”

“I’m sorry. Forgive me?”

“You’re doing a great job.”

“Here’s what I admire about you.”

“That hurt me.”

“I’m not coping.”

“This has been bothering me.”

“Are you ok?”

Emotional Transparency in the 21st Century:
applauded publicly, scolded privately.

The ‘ball and chain’ of the 80s

has been shot down and reimagined.

Like a phoenix rising out of the ashes,

so sexist sarcasm has risen, but on the other side of the gender divide.

It’s cool to be a woman with a man

who doesn’t need a man.

“I can buy myself flowers, but

How embarrassing if I ever had to.”

Teenagers once snogged at the movies

or broke the 6-inch rule at the bus stop.

But those teenagers are now society-forming adults,

and our society’s less awkward outburst of emotion is a

public display of correction.

The cultural machismo soup of our birth

Is now the feminist broth of our children’s birth.

The sarcasm is still the same but it comes

From more feminine throats.

Designed to uproot seriousness

And disrupt any green shoots of pride,

We use sarcasm to cover a comment that

Beneath which our true feelings hide.

Husbands once lauded for long hours

and short tempers

Are now mocked

for boundaries and brokenness.

“RUOK?

Of course you aren’t. Be a man.”

She thinks he wants his ego stroked

He wants his emotional needs acknowledged.

Family units run by women in leadership

And men in submission

Result in underwhelmed women

And overly-needy men.

“Let me love you by humbling you”

she says from an emotional distance.

Real feelings are covered and numbed.

Real honesty is emotional and dumb.

Pain is shame.

Sarcasm is strength.

Power is problematic.

Real is awkward.