Slam Poem about Feminism.
I say, “I am a feminist”
He rolls his eyes and says, “Ok, I’m all for equality and everything, but why can’t a guy hit a girl when it’s perfectly ok for women to hit men?
It’s the question to end all questions, discussions, movements.
One, Let me clear something up.
When has feminism even been about women hitting men and men not being able to hit women?
Who came up with this?
It’s the same guys who are 20 something and concerned about being called for the Vietnam draft.
It’s the same guys who get in your face if you say you just want to be friends.
IT’s the same guys who think my little pony was made for them.
Feminism is many things. There are good things and bad.
Feminism isn’t about having the right to hit people.
We are trying to get people to stop doing that. Stop the unnecessary violence.
People should not have to resort to violence to defend themselves. We don’t want that. How difficult is that concept?
Besides.
Why is he so concerned? Why does he want to hit a woman that bad?
Two,
This question is not new and everytime it is asked
It is asked with the unspoken, hypothetical situation that
Men have stopped hitting women.
That women are just going about hurting.
Screaming at men from cars.
Following them in the dark.
Getting too close.
Harassing them online.
Blaming them for what they said, what they wore, their race and their religion.
Suddenly, men are puppy eyed pouting victims and women. Women are powerful, hungry wolves in our governments and our police force and our military, in every safe place they lurk these women. Suddenly.
But that’s the thing.
Men have not even stopped hitting women in the first place.
Not even long enough to beg the question as to why it’s okay for a woman to hit a man.
It’s an epidemic.
And it’s not just hitting. It’s stalking, raping, assaulting, invading, harassing, threatening, manipulating, dropping drones and blowing up houses.
Three,
He adds, “I mean, what about self-defense?”
What about self-defense?
Self-defense is about as magical and mysterious as unicorns and aliens.
There have been sightings in the skies over Florida last July and over Washington D.C 13 years ago.
Self-defense.
When Marissa Alexander goes free you can talk about self-defense.
But she faces sixty years for pointing a gun in the air and firing a shot to scare off her husband
Not at a body and with no life or blood lost
She asked for stand your ground to hold her up
So that her kids would have a mom
While innocent black boys are still being murdered and
The ones who followed them and pointed their guns at them
Are painting and doing signings at gun shows.
Self Defense.
When women who defend themselves against their abusers
Are punished
And when the teenage boys with brown eyes fight back
They are criminalized in death
And when a lesbian couple refuse to be harassed
They are found under the rising sun face down in a ditch
Self defense
When no one can say a thing to their oppressor without the whole
“Don’t fight fire with fire” thing as if we held a flame thrower
But really we are trying to fight a forest of flames and in our blistered fingers we have a burning match
And it just went out.
Self defense
With those bags of money covered in desert blood, whose self-defense is really more important?
Four,
But what about the men?
The men who are abused by women.
Here’s what these men on an article about a teacher raping one of her students had to say.
They say:
“She was hot” “He should have liked it” “I would have liked it” “I bet he’s only saying its rape because he’s gay” “I bet he’s only saying its rape because he couldn’t perform” “How could you say no?” “What a wimp, what a baby” “How can a woman rape a man?” “Women are too weak”
What about the men?
The men who are abused by other men?
They aren’t criminalized for what happened to them.
They are not to blame.
For the graves growing inside young boys and teens and men who kept quiet for decades
Everyone waters their flowers and weeps.
Everyone cries for them and mourns.
For the girls who are dead inside there is nothing but acid rain and gravel.
When my friends stop living in fear that they will bump into their rapist and abusive ex partners. When we stop making jokes about Rihanna. When abusers in Hollywood are held accountable instead of being invited to award shows and praised for being “feminist”? When people stop saying that someone deserved to be beaten to death for being gay, lesbian, queer, Trans, disabled. For their language, for the darkness of their skin, for the cloth they wear on their head, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When we start teaching consent AND coercion and that being drunk or high isn’t signing a contract. When we stop calling a white tank top a wife beater. When we start teaching men to be responsible and stop teaching women it’s their fault. Stop teaching women to be silent and to not take up space and to be small. When we start respecting victims. When our media stops passing around false information. When our government stop saying its self-defense. When court houses start doing their jobs. When politicians stop acting like doctors. When our governments stop splitting the world as ‘us’ and ‘them’. When people start listening. When people actually start doing things.
That’s when we can talk about your smaller issues that you only seem to care about when women are screaming for help.
Look, Abuse is never okay, no matter the gender of the abuser. And people who think that the unwarranted examples of violence against men are okay are perpetuating the tolerance of abuse, racism, transphobia, homophobia, and more.
But these questions are not about that.
Instead of pretending that society allows women to harm men, how about we start asking why men are still hitting women? Why violence is still seen as an okay thing to do, and how we can finally stop it.
He rolls his eyes and says, “Ok, I’m all for equality and everything, but why can’t a guy hit a girl when it’s perfectly ok for women to hit men?
It’s the question to end all questions, discussions, movements.
One, Let me clear something up.
When has feminism even been about women hitting men and men not being able to hit women?
Who came up with this?
It’s the same guys who are 20 something and concerned about being called for the Vietnam draft.
It’s the same guys who get in your face if you say you just want to be friends.
IT’s the same guys who think my little pony was made for them.
Feminism is many things. There are good things and bad.
Feminism isn’t about having the right to hit people.
We are trying to get people to stop doing that. Stop the unnecessary violence.
People should not have to resort to violence to defend themselves. We don’t want that. How difficult is that concept?
Besides.
Why is he so concerned? Why does he want to hit a woman that bad?
Two,
This question is not new and everytime it is asked
It is asked with the unspoken, hypothetical situation that
Men have stopped hitting women.
That women are just going about hurting.
Screaming at men from cars.
Following them in the dark.
Getting too close.
Harassing them online.
Blaming them for what they said, what they wore, their race and their religion.
Suddenly, men are puppy eyed pouting victims and women. Women are powerful, hungry wolves in our governments and our police force and our military, in every safe place they lurk these women. Suddenly.
But that’s the thing.
Men have not even stopped hitting women in the first place.
Not even long enough to beg the question as to why it’s okay for a woman to hit a man.
It’s an epidemic.
And it’s not just hitting. It’s stalking, raping, assaulting, invading, harassing, threatening, manipulating, dropping drones and blowing up houses.
Three,
He adds, “I mean, what about self-defense?”
What about self-defense?
Self-defense is about as magical and mysterious as unicorns and aliens.
There have been sightings in the skies over Florida last July and over Washington D.C 13 years ago.
Self-defense.
When Marissa Alexander goes free you can talk about self-defense.
But she faces sixty years for pointing a gun in the air and firing a shot to scare off her husband
Not at a body and with no life or blood lost
She asked for stand your ground to hold her up
So that her kids would have a mom
While innocent black boys are still being murdered and
The ones who followed them and pointed their guns at them
Are painting and doing signings at gun shows.
Self Defense.
When women who defend themselves against their abusers
Are punished
And when the teenage boys with brown eyes fight back
They are criminalized in death
And when a lesbian couple refuse to be harassed
They are found under the rising sun face down in a ditch
Self defense
When no one can say a thing to their oppressor without the whole
“Don’t fight fire with fire” thing as if we held a flame thrower
But really we are trying to fight a forest of flames and in our blistered fingers we have a burning match
And it just went out.
Self defense
With those bags of money covered in desert blood, whose self-defense is really more important?
Four,
But what about the men?
The men who are abused by women.
Here’s what these men on an article about a teacher raping one of her students had to say.
They say:
“She was hot” “He should have liked it” “I would have liked it” “I bet he’s only saying its rape because he’s gay” “I bet he’s only saying its rape because he couldn’t perform” “How could you say no?” “What a wimp, what a baby” “How can a woman rape a man?” “Women are too weak”
What about the men?
The men who are abused by other men?
They aren’t criminalized for what happened to them.
They are not to blame.
For the graves growing inside young boys and teens and men who kept quiet for decades
Everyone waters their flowers and weeps.
Everyone cries for them and mourns.
For the girls who are dead inside there is nothing but acid rain and gravel.
When my friends stop living in fear that they will bump into their rapist and abusive ex partners. When we stop making jokes about Rihanna. When abusers in Hollywood are held accountable instead of being invited to award shows and praised for being “feminist”? When people stop saying that someone deserved to be beaten to death for being gay, lesbian, queer, Trans, disabled. For their language, for the darkness of their skin, for the cloth they wear on their head, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When we start teaching consent AND coercion and that being drunk or high isn’t signing a contract. When we stop calling a white tank top a wife beater. When we start teaching men to be responsible and stop teaching women it’s their fault. Stop teaching women to be silent and to not take up space and to be small. When we start respecting victims. When our media stops passing around false information. When our government stop saying its self-defense. When court houses start doing their jobs. When politicians stop acting like doctors. When our governments stop splitting the world as ‘us’ and ‘them’. When people start listening. When people actually start doing things.
That’s when we can talk about your smaller issues that you only seem to care about when women are screaming for help.
Look, Abuse is never okay, no matter the gender of the abuser. And people who think that the unwarranted examples of violence against men are okay are perpetuating the tolerance of abuse, racism, transphobia, homophobia, and more.
But these questions are not about that.
Instead of pretending that society allows women to harm men, how about we start asking why men are still hitting women? Why violence is still seen as an okay thing to do, and how we can finally stop it.