gender binary v1

[alsayn]

the rainbow has more colors that pink and blue. Should "that", be "than"?

Ah yes, typos, my favourite thing on this earth. Thank you for the catch!

not quite as red as pink, she tells me, If pink and blue are the two extremes on this spectrum, why not have it "not quite as pink as red"? Or maybe "not quite as pink as yellow", because red is probably more masculine than orange.

I'm having a bit of a difficult time with this part because yeah, technically the way the poem (and gender stereotype, sort of) is set up is that pink is female and blue is male, and doesn't really leave room for red (which, you're right, is seen as more masculine, but is also the parent colour of pink). However, I pulled this line directly from what my friend told me. Her point, as I understand it, is that's she's slightly less girly than standard, seeing as how orange is heading down the scale away from red/pink. So yeah, "not quite as pink as red" will work much better than what I had. I think I got a bit turned around!

The days she wears dresses are special occasions, short skirts are a celebration,
make-up is worship. What is she worshiping, and why?

....That is an excellent question. Again, something I'll have to ask her to fill in for me. This part of the stanza could use a bit of fleshing out, anyway.

Most days, she wears jeans like battle armor; her binder is a bulletproof vest. Why is her binder a bulletproof vest? Does she write in a binder to ease her mind or something? The connection isn't clear to me.

In this case, the binder in question is one like this: http://www.gc2b.co/#!store/c205c/collections/all/1, used to flatten breasts for a more androgynous/masculine appearance, not a binder like to store files in. When worn, it looks a bit like a bulletproof vest, and is typically made of some relatively tough material. Sorry for the confusion!

he is writing his own code. Is "he" the she from the first stanza?

No, I should have clarified, since this stanza is unfinished! Each stanza is a separate person, hopefully going down the rainbow with a person per colour. This person is separate from the others (and will hopefully have their stanza finished at some point.....)

He witnessed it in bruise blue, Maybe "signed it" instead of witnessed it?

Thanks! Witnessed is such an awkward word there, I was thinking something along the lines of how legal contracts require a witness sometimes, since I use "signed" later in that stanza.

her skin caves like drywall. This line reads like a separate sentence to the preceding list. It's more connected to the following cutting sentence in my eyes.

You're right! I like it much better further down. I'll add that in my revision.

she is mental hospital white, and conversion therapy grey, Can she be both white and grey at once. Maybe "she is mental hospital white, or conversion therapy grey"?

See, here I wasn't sure. The person in question is already playing on being two colours at once, or bouncing between the two, that I thought it might work. Also, there's the fact that she was both in a mental institution for a bit and underwent conversion therapy. The way I figured it, the pink and blue options were replaced by white and grey? Does that make sense?


Thank you so much for all your help!