Philophobia

This is what you wear to church. This is how you make your bed. This is how you sew a button. This is how you set a table for dinner. This is how you smile to someone you don't like at all. This is how you smile to someone you like completely. This is how you walk like a lady and not like the slut you're so bent on becoming. This is how to iron your father's pants so that they don't get a crease. This is how to make to make a buttonhole for the button you've just sewed on. This is how to eat without turning someone else's stomach. This is how to behave in front of men who don't know you well so they won't recognize the slut you're so bent on becoming. This is how to love a man, and if that doesn't work, there are other ways. This is how to get medicine for a cold. This is how to get medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child. This is how to bully a man. This is how a man bullies you. This is how to squeeze the bread at the bakery to make sure it's fresh.

"But what if the baker won't let me feel the bread"

You mean to say that after all that, you're really going to be the kind of woman the baker won't let near the bread?

Lines from "Girl" by
Jamaica Kincaid, 1978