Recently saw the video linked here.
At first I was offended. I thought that the poet was trying to say "It's this girl's fault that she couldn't have enough self esteem to stand up for herself and she got raped". Then I started thinking about the story he told as a precursor to the poem and I wondered.
Was he really trying to say it was her fault? or was he trying to say it was his fault for not helping her realize her self worth?
I watched it 4 or 5 times and tried to find deeper meaning and realized I was just asking deeper questions of myself. To the point where I wasn't even asking "Who is at fault when someone gets raped?" I was asking myself... "What would I do if I got raped?" "What actually drives people to rape others?" and an even better question.... "What can I do to help?'
I remember watching a video many years ago about a South American activist who came to New York to talk about the activities he and his "followers" were taking to battle oppression in Brazil and during the question period of his presentation someone asked "What can we do to help? What should we do to stop similar behavior in America?" The man responded with something like (I'm paraphrasing here) "When you're in dire straits you don't spend a lot of time questions what you can do. You know what you MUST do and you do it"
So then I asked myself "WHY aren't I helping?" am I not in a situation where I feel the need to help?
At first I was offended. I thought that the poet was trying to say "It's this girl's fault that she couldn't have enough self esteem to stand up for herself and she got raped". Then I started thinking about the story he told as a precursor to the poem and I wondered.
Was he really trying to say it was her fault? or was he trying to say it was his fault for not helping her realize her self worth?
I watched it 4 or 5 times and tried to find deeper meaning and realized I was just asking deeper questions of myself. To the point where I wasn't even asking "Who is at fault when someone gets raped?" I was asking myself... "What would I do if I got raped?" "What actually drives people to rape others?" and an even better question.... "What can I do to help?'
I remember watching a video many years ago about a South American activist who came to New York to talk about the activities he and his "followers" were taking to battle oppression in Brazil and during the question period of his presentation someone asked "What can we do to help? What should we do to stop similar behavior in America?" The man responded with something like (I'm paraphrasing here) "When you're in dire straits you don't spend a lot of time questions what you can do. You know what you MUST do and you do it"
So then I asked myself "WHY aren't I helping?" am I not in a situation where I feel the need to help?
