When You're a Boy

"You can wear a uniform
When you're a boy
Other boys check you out
You get a girl
To say all your favorite things
When you're a boy."

Bowie/Eno from Boys Keep Swinging

I was watching a group of third and fourth grade boys on a playground recently. They were cracking each other up, being silly and just having a general good time. All at once, the group took off running with all the grace and spastic energy eight and nine-year-old bodies possess. In what seemed like pure enjoyment of the moment, one boy grabbed his friend's hand. The friend pulled his away as if he had just touched a hot stove, and the first boy stopped dead in his tracks, the grin wiped clean from his face. "Don't hold my hand!" the friend yelled, continuing to run with the other guys. "Sorry," the first boy mumbled, and tried to catch up.