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There is a contagion on my campus.
There is a sickness in society.
I am not a doctor but I am deeply concerned
‘cause it doesn’t take an MD to realize that we are unwell. Our women are coughing, our men are ill too- this is gender neutral
‘cause we’re all infected.
It’s not just my malady, or yours.
This is everyone’s illness.
so here I speak:
40% poetry, 100% dissatisfaction, and 100% a call to action
now I don’t mean speak in a, “hey women should just speak up about this stuff when it’s happening” kinda way
“cause that’ll end it” kinda way-
because that’s only a peek at the problem-
That’s only a whisper of what’s wrong.
I mean seriously speak, in a ‘together thousands of voices hitting the same note,
singing the same song in solidarity’ kinda way.
We are brilliant beings with thoughts and throats who have forgotten about our ability to use them.
Hey, let’s use them.
let’s tell everyone we know to tell everyone they know that our current conversation about sexual violence isn’t working, obviously
as evidence of 5 sexual assaults reported in 4 weeks
now there are those people who say,
“sexual assaults haven’t increased, just the reporting of them, so it’s fine”
dear those people, it is most certainly not and absolutely never will be “fine”.
I commend the brave ones speaking up and reporting violence
but, see, my interest is not in less reports, but in less silence
and bigger than that,
I don’t want less timely warning emails I want less reasons to be sent timely warning emails
Because, while five is too many, one is also too many
because the only number of assaults I’m alright with occurring on my campus, and in my community is zero
I read, “an injury to one is an injury to all” and that couldn’t be more relevant.
I am but one
but I stand for all
and you should too.
we owe it to ourselves, our fellow classmates and our community to make it known that we know none of this is okay.
to make it known that we’re working on being okay
and this starts with a different discourse-
one that never victim blames,
one that tells attackers not to attack
not just victims not to become victims
what I’m referring to, what I’m speaking out against is something known as rape culture-
a culture that more or less condones these acts
inadvertently by putting responsibility in the hands of those who aren’t really responsible.
See a doer does.
See a rapist rapes
and a victim is just that- a victim.
sure he or she should stand up and speak out when he or she is victimized
but let’s work on the first half of the problem-
let’s work on never being victimized.
they tell us there is a way to do this.
they tell us, let’s talk about safety. Sure, let’s talk about safety:
walking down the street I should feel safe.
Letting a friend stay over I should feel safe.
That safety sways when we aren’t told about what real safety is.
Real safety is proactive not reactive.
Real safety is not about doing something because something else happens.
Real safety is about never letting that something else happen in the first place.
Real safety is talking not just about safety but also talking about consent.
So let’s talk about consent.
A colleague of mine pointed out the other day that the only posters we have around campus addressing consent, read, “consent is sexy.”
she said to me, “Consent is not sexy, It is mandatory”
I brushed off her words, so easy
but they stuck with me
so I the paid them the attention they deserved,
said shit, you’re right.
Consent isn’t cute it is compulsory.
But see, we created an apparently ineffective trend out of something obligatory,
meanwhile half our classmates are feeling like they’re stuck in purgatory.
and half think everything is going hunky-dory.
This has to end- 
We must revamp the rhetoric about safety.
We must change the conversation about consent.
This has to end-
With a bang not a whisper
this has to end.
and it starts with me
it starts with us
it starts with this day
and goes on with the next and the next and the next
‘cause for now this fight is one worth waging every single day
until every single one of our women and our men walk not in fear but in unity.