“**** culture” ... Even the phrase slices my tongue and cuts like a double-edged sword of double standards. ... The same double standards that say that a girl who wears makeup is a ***** but says that if she doesn’t then she’s ugly. ... The same double standards that say that if a girl wears a skirt then she’s desperate but if she wears jeans then she’s stiff. ... Double standards that keep even the strongest girls asking “Who am I supposed to be?” ... The double standard that require **** kits with pamphlets like pamphlets are gonna help us get better. ... **** culture requires underwear for women with a lock on it, password and all! Buy one get one free, not of the underwear, but the rapists! ... **** culture, the same one you see on the news and in the streets and schools and stores and malls and parks and sports and on the ******* sidewalks. … This next line is for the man in the beaten up red car who cat-called me when I was 15 while I was walking to my friends house last summer: No thanks, I don't want to “smile, little mama” … This line is to the sixth grade teacher in my old school district who was fired for sexually harassing and abusing his students: Who do you think you are to be putting your hands up shirts of 12 year old girls? … This next line is for the man on the news who said “Well she was wearing a skirt, so she was practically asking for it” Excuse me, sir, but that glass ceiling was made of glass it was just asking to be smashed, right? ... The patriarchy shatters around their fragile masculinity and breaks into one thousand pieces before cutting the survivor’s wrists because no one ever believes them. ... This is the stigma that is delivered upon the doorstep of **** culture’s house by the UPS worker named “Societal Pressures”. The package that no one wants to receive. It knocks at your door but you try to keep it locked. ... “Knock knock?” “Who’s there?” “**** joke” “**** joke who?” “**** joke who isn’t ******* funny”. ... **** culture is the societal pressure that is put on us to be beautiful, not for ourselves, but for the man who sees us every morning. ... **** culture is the demand to smile for the old man that we just passed on the street near the bakery but keeping our mouths shut when we have something to say. ... **** culture is standing in front of the mirror everyday before school making sure that I can't be targeted for anything that I'm wearing. Looking at every seem, every angle, every button and zipper. ... **** culture is how I (along with my friends) can't walk by a group of boys without pulling up our already uncomfortably high necklines and ducking our heads. ... **** culture runs in the veins of every girl, woman, and man that is subject to society. ... **** culture is the phrase I'm not supposed to say but I say anyway because I deserve to be heard.
I read this for my slam poem mini-unit in public speaking and people were ****** at me for it... I enjoyed every second of it. I would like to say that the "knock knock" joke was not my original joke.