I’m one of the lucky ones.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never been assaulted. But:<\/p>\n I have<\/em> tried changing how I walk so my hips don’t sway. I have<\/em> been propositioned in a store late at night by a man old enough to be my father. I have<\/em> hidden in the staff room to avoid male patrons who make a beeline for my desk. I have<\/em> asked my brother to not say he “raped” an opponent in video game matches. I have<\/em> cut men out of my life for betting too close to comfort\u00a0and was\u00a0chastised for blowing it out of proportion. I have<\/em>\u00a0faced a man twice my age\u00a0trying to lure me away from my friends at a convention,\u00a0a place I was supposed to be safe. I have<\/em> avoided being friendly\u00a0with men. *<\/p>\n I\u2019ve never been assaulted. But:<\/p>\n Statistically, I have a 1 in 5 chance of being raped I don’t like those odds.<\/p>\n Do you?<\/p>\n (And remember: I’m one of the lucky ones.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m one of the lucky ones. I\u2019ve never been assaulted. I\u2019ve never been molested. I\u2019ve never been stalked. I\u2019ve never been raped. But: I have tried changing how I walk so my hips don’t sway. (Because that would be provocative.) I have been propositioned in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":868,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/868"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19771"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20193,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19771\/revisions\/20193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI\u2019ve never been molested.
\nI\u2019ve never been stalked.
\nI\u2019ve never been raped.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n(Because that would be provocative.)<\/p>\n
\n(Because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit with shorts over it.)<\/p>\n
\n(Because they can’t take a hint and don’t go away\u00a0and I can’t say anything because customer service.)<\/p>\n
\n(Because I know at least three women who have been raped and the joke isn’t funny.)<\/p>\n
\n(Because apparently I can’t accurately assess my own sense of safety.)<\/p>\n
\n(Because I wore something pretty and was too polite to say “No, I’m not comfortable with this.”)<\/p>\n
\n(Because I don’t want them to think that I’m being flirtatious.)<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019ve never been molested.
\nI\u2019ve never been stalked.
\nI\u2019ve never been raped.<\/p>\n
\nand a 1 in 20 chance of\u00a0facing sexual violence in some fashion during my lifetime.<\/p>\n