male privilege

By D.A. Clarke

privilege is simple:

going for a pleasant stroll after dark,

not checking the back of your car as you get in,

sleeping soundly,

speaking without interruption,

and not remembering dreams of rape that follow you all day,

that woke you up crying, and

privilege

is not seeing your stripped, humiliated body

plastered in celebration across every magazine rack,

privilege

is going to the movies and not seeing yourself

terrorized, defamed, battered, butchered -

seeing something else.

privilege

is riding your bicycle across town

without being screamed at or run off the road,

not needing an abortion,

taking off your shirt on a hot day, in a crowd,

not wishing you could type better, just in case -

not shaving your legs,

having a good job and expecting to keep it,

not feeling the boss's hand up your crotch,

dozing off on late-night busses,

privilege

is being the hero on the TV show,

not the dumb broad,

living where your genitals are totemized - not denied,

knowing your doctor won't rape you.

privilege

is being smiled at all day by nice, helpful women,

it is the way you pass judgment on their appearance with magisterial authority,

the way you face a judge of your own sex in court

and are overrepresented in Congress

and are not assaulted by the police

or used as a dart board by your friendly mechanic.

privilege

is seeing your bearded face echo through the history texts

not only of your high school days, but all your life,

not being relegated to a paragraph every other chapter,

the way you occupy entire poetry books

and more than your share of the couch unchallenged.

it is you mouthing smug, atrocious insults at women

who blink and change the subject - politely

privilege

is how seldom the rapist's name appears in the papers

and the way you smirk over your PLAYBOY.

it's simple, really -

privilege

means someone else's pain.

your wealth is my terror,

your uniform is a woman raped to death - here

or in Cambodia or wherever

wherever your obscene privilege

writes your name in my blood...

it's that simple.

you've always had it -

that's why it doesn't seem

to make you sick to your stomach.

you have it - we pay for it.

now do you understand?

(Note: wording may not be entirely accurate)