Harkamal Dhillon
You must be the change you want to see in the world.
–Mahtama Gandhi
Boys you must show your boys how to look at her as an equal
And not tell her you’ve been watching the news’s and to be
careful.
You have to watch Scarlet Johansson give a speech about
woman’s reproductive rights in history 315
And say something other than
She’s hot.
And makes the class laugh
but make girls like me feel
Silenced and objectified
All over again
The pride and empowerment I felt from that speech
Didn’t last.
Girls are funny too you know
but were told we are nice first
so we think and think before we speak
and we let men like that go on and speak
like its okay and were fine
even though your comments are demining.
I’m here day dreaming about how amazing it would of felt
for the men in History 318
To look at the speech and be just as mortified
As me.
And unlike you boy from History 318.
I am a feminist because these problems still exist
And I know if I turned to explain to you
why your comment was wrong
I would be laughed at by the boys in the back
for getting to strung up too emotional over “nothing”.
I don’t want to hear “She must be on her period”
You see boy from History 318
Scarlet said she fears for her daughter and how she will
grow
In a society she knows
Wants to keep her down,
she’s worried about boys like you
who ignore anything she has to say because its another hot
girl talking.
So what if she wasn’t your perception of hot
Since you didn’t listen to the speech would you even look
her way?
When shes talking about issues she has to deal with every
single day?
Or is she just a girl on a rant?
I know you wouldn’t under stand, you cant
Until I explain feminism to you by using association
By telling you how it effect’s you mother, you sister, your girlfriend
and one day your daughter
Isn’t that sad in it’s self?
Boys when you hear a girl spilling over in emotion reading a
poem about how she feels like a piece of walking meat
I know you don’t get it , I know you’ve never felt it
But don’t say her voice is annoying
And the editing was bad
And leave it at that
When the teacher asks
what your opinion is about the issue of sexism.
And please girls if you ever grow to be a human rights
teacher
And the boys in your class
respond to feminism and sexism in this country just like
that
like the boys I have seen did.
Please don’t laugh
Please don’t say its okay and move on to the next topic
Hold those boys accountable.
While they heard a lot of nothing
I was sitting there holding back a flood of tears
thinking back from when I was twelve
and all the years I have felt uncomfortable in my own skin
and with my lip and my growing body
how many times iv almost been sexually assaulted before I
even could wrap my head around what sex even was.
So please girls don’t make her feel unworthy by letting boys
react like that.
Too many of my teachers have.
Girls don’t ever let a boy tell you your not like the other
girls … be proud to be a girl just like every other girl on this earth because
we are strong not just sweet and nice.
And boys and girls please be the amazing women and men you
can be and preach equality, and never forget
You must be the change you want to see in the world.
