Adrienne Rich On Rape

In class on Friday, we discussed the ideas of Adrienne Rich, who argued that the rape of women is an act if terrorism to keep women from participating in public life. This is an idea that resonated with me, as I wrote the following poem: Ay! Yellow Dress! Let me give you a ride! Margaret Atwood and I roll our eyes in sync, And we decide that we need a better diversion, So I plug my ears up and try to hide behind the sweet soprano voice of a German woman. I can feel eyes on me. Goddamn girl! My eyes are daggers now, digging into soul of the man calling me from his ‘08 Honda. But the sound of my blood pressure rising is muffled, As his voice is amplified by the sudden fear, heightened by news stories Of broken jaws and broken noses and spaghetti straps torn and discarded. Body found in a Charleston alley: college girl raped and murdered But what did she expect? Out alone in that yellow dress, I miss my bus. Not my best writing, but it’s the principle behind it that is really important to me. Catcalling is seen as an innocent form of flattery by many. But catcalling almost always escalates. Women have been attacked and beaten for rejecting the advances of men. In extreme cases, women have been raped for rejecting a man. This fear of being attacked prompts many women to speak to men, to give them their phone numbers when they ask, to avoid a negative response from him. As a woman, so many of my actions are motivated by FEAR. I don’t go certain places or wear certain things because I am afraid. An outstanding number of women are raped everyday, but what is even more alarming is the number of women that live in fear of being raped, and the way that fear changes the way that we live our lives.