On a scale of 1-10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest: 1. How cute did my **** look as I walked home from school? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2. How old must a girl be before you catcall her? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 3. How many miles is a girl allowed to travel from her home before she is a target? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 4. In this deadly hot summer, how many layers must a girl wear to protect herself from your cries? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5. How many times has this method of courtship ever been effective? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6. How many boys does a girl need in order to protect her from you? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7. How many times has someone catcalled your mother, your sister, your daughter? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8. If unable to answer Question 7, how many times have they come home crying, holding their clothes tight to shield themselves? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9. How many letters are in my name? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
I'm sorry. That last question was unfair. You would never know my name because, despite all the curses and jeering, you never once asked for it.
My name is @@@@@@. I am not your "baby." I am not your "**." I am not your "****." I am me, and I belong to no one.
10. How likely are you to allow me to not be anything else? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
*Please note that this poem is not an attack on the entire male gender, or even sexually mature adult males. This is a poem in defense against the many men and boys who casually fling ****** assaults out their car windows. This is a poem created to make us think about how common this problem of casual objectification is, and how far we have really come as a developed society if it still exists. If this poem seems like a whine about my insecurities, note who this poem is addressed to. This is for them, not for me. To these men, I am nothing more than a target, a source for cheap laughs. No matter how confident I can be, how safe I feel in my own skin, I cannot change their very different impression of me in the instant they drive past. I want to challenge their perception where I can, and I want this poem to reflect the process back at them while using the very common rating system that people use to judge shallow physical beauty.