privilege Toxic_Kisses A poem for men who don't understand what we mean when we say that they have it. . privilege is simple: going for a pleasant stroll after dark, not checking the back of your car as you get in, sleeping soundly, speaking without interruption, and not remembering dreams of rape, that follow you all day. that woke you up crying, and privilege is not seeing your stripped, humiliated body plastered in celebration across every magazine rack, privilege is going to the movies and not seeing yourself terrorized, defamed, battered, butchered seeing something else. privilege is riding your bicycle across town without being screamed at or run off the road, not needing an abortion, taking off your shirt on a hot day, in a crowd, not wishing you could type better just in case not shaving your legs, having a good job and expecting to keep it, not feeling the boss's hand up your crotch, dozing off on late-night buses, privilege is being the hero in the TV show, not the dumb broad, living where your genitals are totemized not denied, knowing your doctor won't rape you. privilege is being smiled at all day by nice, helpful women, it is the way you pass judgment on their appearance with magisterial authority, the way you face a judge of your own sex in court and are overrepresented in Congress and are not assaulted by the police or used as a dart board by your friendly mechanic, privilege is seeing your bearded face echo through the history texts not only of your high school days but all of your life, not being relegated to a paragraph every other chapter, the way you occupy entire poetry books and more than your share of the couch unchallenged, it is your mouthing smug, atrocious insults at women who blink and change the subject politely privilege is how seldom the rapist's name appears in the papers and the way you smirk over your Playboy it's simple really. privilege means someone else's pain, your wealth is my terror, your uniform is a women raped to death her or in Cambodia or wherever wherever your obscene privilege writes your name in my blood, it's that simple, you've always had it, that's why it doesn't seem to make you sick at stomach, you have it, we pay for it now do you understand? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A poem I stumbled onto a long time ago on the net, I wish it had an author so I could give her the credit she is due for writing this. 011013 ... . . 031004 ... misstree holy crapola. i want to keep a copy in my pocket for every time i start to hear the "opressed_white_man" speech. deep thanks for posting this, tk. 031004 ... tessa . I was going to write about something else, but then I read this and had nothing to say. 050424 ... delial and if a ten-ton truck kills the both of us to die by your side, well the pleasure - the privilege is mine 050424 ... H. L. Mencken "What men value in this world is not rights but privileges." 081201 ... REAListic optimIST privilege is one-sided freedom 120702 what's it to you? who go blather from