so I’ve always said that I wasn’t going
to start a poem with an introduction but
hi my name is area where I’m 18 years
old and from the first time I heard that
I was going to be speaking I’ve been
racking my brain trying to figure out
how to put a salt obsession and
self-hatred into words so forgive me for
the paper but this is a very new piece
for me and it’s too important to mess up
you are unclean but you will be wholly
baptized in the water of womanhood so
thick so measured you will no longer
remember your time before it you are a
girl you do not understand when the line
blurs and can finally crush your open
lips as woman you are not sure if you
would like to cross that line not sure
if the label fits your tongue if you can
swallow it whole let it rest inside your
belly we teach young women to look
towards everyone but themselves for
self-worth so when your first boyfriend
asks you why you are distant you will
say that you cannot love him because you
do not love yourself you tell this to
the second his name is mirror he does
not agree with you but that is only
because he is guilty on all counts he
has snatched out your vocal chords every
morning he slips a scale underneath your
feet and that every night he feeds you
fat he likes to keep you in this
perpetual circle of hatred until your
name is if you could only lose one more
pound the third asks what does it feel
like to be full of so much hate you say
it is like a war that you never win my
mother and father taught me better than
this but that girl in the picture the
one whose skin is lighter than mine the
one whose body is thinner than mine she
is who I have been taught to want to be
your fourth boyfriend will not be your
boyfriend at all but a man who has
decided that to defile is to be a martyr
for full male masculinity he will grab
you by the waist and say that you asked
for it this is not what you agreed to
when you let yourself go to the waters
hands on your neck you are unclean you
are a woman you are walking home from a
party fingers hovering over your iPhone
screen already dialed to 9-1-1 this is
what they said would work but in the
moment you are not quick enough this is
not what you agreed to
you are unclean when you are finally
willing to speak instead of asking about
the boys name they will ask for the
number of his football jersey on
television you are raped again and again
and blamed in the same sentence your
skirt was three inches too short you
shouldn’t have walked home alone it was
your fault it is all your fault but the
boy who assaulted you can’t sleep and
eat his steak in peace but you can’t
sleep and eat either not after the idea
of you something so intimate has run off
lost and will not come back but boys
will be boys college security will be
launching a formal investigation
he is so sorry well you are sorry too
you are sorry that colleges raise money
for self-defense classes instead of a
class called you do not own this body
you are sorry that we teach young men
unaccountability that disrespecting
women is manliness at its fullest
potential if you are heavier curvy and
have a big butt you are fat on your walk
home your whistled at if you are
comfortable with your sexuality you are
a and if you don’t know how to
please a man
you are not knowledgeable enough if you
wear no makeup you should try to dress
up and if you’re wearing any you are
wearing too much you are shoulders are
not in the dress code put on a sweater
you are hey girl what’s your name your
body is a shackled shrine that millions
pray to but never give back Oh Goddess
hear my prayer they say I will baptize
myself for you you have made nations I
am your son and your daughter and still
they take so tell them I do not want
your clean nor your holy I will not dip
my head inside of water tainted by a
sword of anger that cannot be written
about it is the knowledge that you have
been born in a world that will hate you
for everything that creates you it is
the day you realize that you also
believe it tell them
I will not be your sacrifice America
continues to act as if feminism is so
radical when this entire country
relocated enslaved and murdered millions
America acts as if our rape culture is a
side effect as if our girls self-esteem
problems are a side effect as if teen
pregnancy is a side effect as if women’s
issues are just side effects as if
violent men are side effects as if women
are always meant to be just on the side
so tell them you do not own this body [Applause]