After the women are freed (a ‘Rap’)

You talk to me
about equality
and how we’re now all basically free,
you say you don’t need
that feminist crap
ugly man hating women who are lost in the past

Yeh that’s opinion
but it’s not fact
it’s a rape culture world and men run the racket:
what was she wearing, was she
out on a date with him?
not reliable
sober
or maybe she just lying ’bout him
                    [come to think of it yeh she said she liked that dude…]

So the fights are over now, and everyone won
feminism’s obsolete, the battles are done
then tell me, why is it statistically speaking
a woman will be killed just while I am reading

A female job is valuable just try and find a nurse
or a teacher
or an admin, yet the pay is just two-thirds what a man gets
for work about the same skill
his time more valued, does he really pay more bills
is a builder really better than the one who takes your temperature
and that’s just if you figure that a nurse is only female
and a carpenter
never
is

So tell me
what kind of world will it be
what will life be like after the women are freed

Not about slut shaming
tho
just put on a coat
don’t see men with peckers out
in their see-thru shorts
why’s it up to women
to dazzle their dicks
they should demonstrate to YOU you’re worth more than some kicks
and I aint against cazsh sex cos that’s how some of us roll
but he is called a PLAYER and you all a bunch of HOs

You say the fights are over now, and everyone won
feminism’s obsolete, the battles are done
so tell me, why, statistically speaking
a woman will be killed just while I am reading
What kind of world can it be
what will life be like when the women are freed

I’m talking to YOU boys now it ain’t up to the girls
rape is not about high heels and tiny little skirts
it’s for power and control
you are missing from your life
you take it out on someone else to boost you up inside
if you wanna stop a rapist it’s not down to the booze
Teach your sons not to rape!
easy to do
If we start with HONOR and that being a man
doesn’t mean that you are free to grab what ya can
No means no,
no matter what was going on before
Be annoyed,
be sad
be on out the door
but you haven’t earned the Right
to take what you please
kissin and some drinking isn’t gateway to your needs

And rape CULTURE,
what the fuck is that
we had roofies in the 70s but now they hunt in packs
and the little bastards film it and they post on the web
so the victim’s raped AGAIN AGAIN it’s fuckin with her head
next thing
she kills herself
and now your victim’s dead

Women are your equals
we aren’t better than you
don’t need a pedestal
or damn doors held for us too
Open doors to JOBS
Opportunity
treat equal skills with equal pay and see what ALL achieve

then
we all put on our sexy shit
go dancing til the dawn is red
This game of king? I’m sick of it!
planet needs all of our skills to hope to save what’s left of it

You say the fights are over now, and everyone won
feminism’s obsolete the battles are done

so then tell me, why is it
that statistically speaking
a woman has been killed just while I was reading

what kind of future world could it be
what would life be like if the women are freed.

 

Artwork © Shelley Whiting

 

Rose Drew, poet-anthropologist and mom, has hosted open mics for 11 years and co-owns small press Stairwell Books. Rose has sold refrigerators at stores, drinks in bars, and science to 9-year-olds. Her favorite places: a lab analyzing human skeletons; in front of an audience performing poetry. Published in newspapers, books, journals, her book Temporary Safety was #9 on 2011 Purple Patch 20 Best Individual Collections. Rose would love to see her NSA file.

Shelley Whiting is an artist from Mesa, Arizona. “I have OCD and Bipolar disorder. I like to paint about my mental illness as well as paintings about religion.”