Galt MacDermot
My Conviction
[MARGARET MEAD, spoken]
I wish every mother and father in this theatre would go home tonight, and make a speech to their teenagers and say "Kids, be free! No guilt. Be whoever you are. Do whatever you want to do, just as long as you don't hurt anybody." Right?

[TRIBE, spoken]
Right!

[MARGARET MEAD]
I would just like to say that it is my conviction
That longer hair and other flamboyant affectations
Of appearance are nothing more
Than the male's emergence from his drab camouflage
Into the gaudy plumage
Which is the birthright of his sex

There is a peculiar notion that elegant plumage
And fine feathers are not proper for the man
When actually that is the way things are
In most species