Rape Culture < Safe Culture

An impromptu piece conveyed and driven on emotion. Not structured, carefully planned, or punctuated properly- just written from reactions of every day and normal occurrences. The fact that this isn’t anything new and has become normalised is disappointing - to say the VERY LEAST.

Untitled Image via Essence Magazine.

Why do I have to worry? Or stress about what I wear? This rape culture and unsafe culture needs to expire ASAP.

No matter where I go, it follows me like a plague. But it’s the plague that plagues their minds to think that hurting women is okay.

I open my mouth to a silent scream, because it seems as though they can’t hear me. I sit here in waiting, expecting to see change. Small change. Any change.

Why do I feel unsafe? Why is this the castle that we’ve built? Where boys are raised uneducated, and girls are stripped of their womanhood.

Is it hopeless to hope for this plague’s expiration date? To want to walk on the streets independently, or not run from fear breathlessly. And consequently, becoming a product of warranted safety.

I am left vulnerable because my group of closest companions can’t follow me everywhere, like we do when we walk to the bathroom. And sometimes I am left alone. Vulnerable and alone.

So here I will wait. And bare the weight of countless woman’s stories and educate those with listening ears and humbled hearts.

I will wait for moments where I won’t have to rely on apps or keys that don’t work. Because no matter how far I run, I will always be stunned by the sheer ignorance that men take upon themselves.

Have we been desensitised? We blend into the minds of unseeing open eyes. Being blind to basic needs and human rights. Cold and forgotten. Just like the human decency left at the closed door. Never to be opened, or brought into the light- for the fear of misplaced judgement and unrelenting belittlement.

Concealed trauma keeps growing. Concealed trauma passed on. Concealed trauma buried deep inside. When we close our eyes the memories rise. Until we can’t escape.

Untitled Image via OurGoodBrands.

Suddenly, I see my sisters by my side. I hear my sisters sing with pride, as we walk and we march for something greater. To reign justice over those who have betrayed her.

We wait patiently for the death of misogyny and sexist independent inquiry. We lay to rest the bystanders who travel through life silently. We wait for men to understand that their actions are an invasion of privacy.

Searching for a time that these blurred lines of inequality expire into history. When I won’t have to worry or stress about what I wear. When the extermination of rape culture paves the way for a safe culture.