Still Not Asking For It

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Today my friend will wear a short skirt

and a top that is tied around her waist,

showing just alittle of her belly button.

She will go to the store to buy food for her son,

and while standing on line,

a woman, in line at the register over,

who chooses to wear a tshirt and a pair of jeans,

will give her and her son dirty looks, and whisper something degrading to her husband.

The woman’s husband will eye my friend wantingly,

Almost hungrily.

Then turn to his wife and agree with her undermining comment.

According to this woman, my friend is “Asking For It”.

Now her rapist didn’t care that

she was wearing her mother’s sweatpants,

and her brother’s extra large sweatshirt,

or that her shoes were battered

because she had worn them to play soccer all year.

He didn’t care that she had acne,

or that she had bags under her eyes from studying for her final exams.

And he doesn’t care that he is now a father.

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See the problem with our society is that we tell women to

Embrace their bodies and love themselves,

Yet shame them for doing just that.

And instead of teaching people not to sexualize

Each other, we teach them to hide their bodies away

From the world.

When my friend wears sweatpants and a sweatshirt,

She Is Not “Asking For It”.

When she wears skinny jeans and a tshirt,

She Is Not “Asking For It”.

When she wears her short skirt and her tied top,

She Is Still Not “Asking For It”.

Because be it sweatpants and sweatshirts,

Jeans and tshirts,

Skirts and tied tops,

Or a perverse nakedness,

It does not mean that one is entitled to another’s body.