Photo courtesy of Tribune India
at her school,
it’s not only the muscular jock
that makes rape sound like a shaggy-dog story
it’s also the averagely built skinny man who camouflages in feminism
flexing his wit, runs it like a blood sport
there are many ways to be an ignorant bloke;
a fellow buddy review praising your joke, is one of them
at her home,
you can spot strange little tones of sexism,
when her father whispers to his woman to cook the food for his friends
then punishes her for not cooking it the way he likes
at the bar, you can spot the nerd sitting next to her table,
making a criminal joke sound like a hysterical joke
wanting to show other men that he belongs to the arrogant wolfpack,
thinking that she would think he is manly and irresistible
in the bus amidst the crowd,
a strange man’s hand slithers like a snake
up her skirt and takes a bite –
it was her first day at a new job,
the rare instance of a stout and intimidating mother who detects,
takes her side, and tramples the offender’s legs, is a stroke of luck
to the girl who now believes her life is filled with misfortunes
and regrettable outfit choices
she is victimized by rape jokes that run as a blood sport
humiliated in newsletters that the mailman slides at each door
and the man she likes now,
looks at her facebook profile like it’s a victim’s profile
she is a survivor
trauma lingers like her friend, in the aftermath of a sexual assault
no one dares to ask her how she felt
treating a victim with dignity is a fact that, no education taught
living in survivor’s guilt, disgusted by her own body
she lives among blood thirsty parasites,
who only see her as a mere object
surrounded by other survivors labelled as victims in alleyways
chained to society’s humiliation,
punctured tongues to hold the violent stories in-
it’s a shame how the world works,
when the man who entertains rape jokes is the kick off for abuse,
from verbal to physical as if it’s some sort of revolution
it’s a neverending cycle of female victims in retaliation –
decades worth of articles about toxic masculinity,
oral presentations about violence against women
and years’ worth of conversation therapy to women’s shelters
but the root cause was never solved
because these men i talk of, they like to hound women
and run rape jokes as a blood sport