Independent Study Project
This project was very open ended and we were able to choose what we studied. We were able to choose a historical event or phenomenon. This project was launched for the honors kids towards the beginning of first semester, and we spent all the way up to the second month of the second semester studying the subject and working on creating a synthesis and art piece. I studied the contemporary issue of rape culture and the hyper-sexualization of women.
Click Here to Read My Synthesis!
Art peice
I am 17 years old.
Clumsy feet are still trying to find their home in shoes too big for them
Heart still trying to find a home in a world too big for it.
There is empty space between my heart, and my lungs, and my ribs that hold it all together
That I hate to say is populated with fear
Populated with the “trust no ones” of walking down the street
Everyone wants to touch skin rumored to be so soft it’s silk in place of skin
Silk skin I am
They try to touch me.
I am 17 years old.
Too young;
To know about womanlike dangers
In eyes of idealists I am perfectly sound standing here
On a college campus.
Too young;
I shouldn’t have twenty year old eyes trying to take me out
Take me in
Tell me that even if I’m asexual he can “convince me otherwise”
Just give him a night
Too young;
Is a phrase I’m getting pretty tired of.
Try to preach that phrase out
Do not teach it to me,
Teach it to your sons.
Because I know too well that I am too young.
Where I learned all of my tricks was not through wise words
But rather warnings
Wear your keys between your knuckles like this
Do not leave your drink alone at parties
There are too many men who can get their hands on date rape drugs for it to be a one in a million chance
My chances are one in six.
One out of six women are victims of attempted or completed rape in the US alone
More women are expected to prevent their own rape than men are to not rape in the first place
There are blogs and sections of college websites telling me how to prevent my rape
But I have an idea
Do not rape me in the first place!
I have been effectively turned into sex in heels
God forbid my shoulder shows at a public school because I will distract the men around me with the erotica of my skin
I am not yours to control and if I say my shoulder isn’t sexual than it probably isn’t sexual
And the wonder that is my breasts
Have to be so sexualized that I am not allowed to show them on TV, on a painting, in a movie, without special warning
Without the card that proves you’re old enough to view any old part of my body.
Contrary to popular belief
Breasts are not sexual organs.
They are sacks of fat with the sole purpose of producing milk for infants.
I was not allowed to present an art piece including the breasts of a woman by authority above me because of their sexual nature.
You have successfully sexualized a basic human function.
My skin is so sexual now that I’m blamed for it
A continuous cycle of
What did I do
What did I do
What did I do
Not what did he do
If a man can’t help himself to me than I had a coming
If I am raped than it is never the rapist’s fault the question always asked is
“Well what were you wearing?”
Dogs can understand the word ‘no’ better than some of the men at my school
Not understanding the line between yes and no
Consent and non-consent
They like to pretend that no means “convince me”
That “no” means that you can puzzle piece your way into me
Tell me how I look like flowers
Turn me into a poem and spread my legs
Plant your seed into me and tell me how I look like flowers
Grow me into a graveyard
And allow history to repeat itself because that’s just what people like me get
People like me
Women
Not even people anymore remember I am flowers
In graveyards
I am 17 years old.
Clumsy feet are still trying to find their home in shoes too big for them
Heart still trying to find a home in a world too big for it.
There is empty space between my heart, and my lungs, and my ribs that hold it all together
That I hate to say is populated with fear
Populated with the “trust no ones” of walking down the street
Everyone wants to touch skin rumored to be so soft it’s silk in place of skin
Silk skin I am
They try to touch me.
I am 17 years old.
Too young;
To know about womanlike dangers
In eyes of idealists I am perfectly sound standing here
On a college campus.
Too young;
I shouldn’t have twenty year old eyes trying to take me out
Take me in
Tell me that even if I’m asexual he can “convince me otherwise”
Just give him a night
Too young;
Is a phrase I’m getting pretty tired of.
Try to preach that phrase out
Do not teach it to me,
Teach it to your sons.
Because I know too well that I am too young.
Where I learned all of my tricks was not through wise words
But rather warnings
Wear your keys between your knuckles like this
Do not leave your drink alone at parties
There are too many men who can get their hands on date rape drugs for it to be a one in a million chance
My chances are one in six.
One out of six women are victims of attempted or completed rape in the US alone
More women are expected to prevent their own rape than men are to not rape in the first place
There are blogs and sections of college websites telling me how to prevent my rape
But I have an idea
Do not rape me in the first place!
I have been effectively turned into sex in heels
God forbid my shoulder shows at a public school because I will distract the men around me with the erotica of my skin
I am not yours to control and if I say my shoulder isn’t sexual than it probably isn’t sexual
And the wonder that is my breasts
Have to be so sexualized that I am not allowed to show them on TV, on a painting, in a movie, without special warning
Without the card that proves you’re old enough to view any old part of my body.
Contrary to popular belief
Breasts are not sexual organs.
They are sacks of fat with the sole purpose of producing milk for infants.
I was not allowed to present an art piece including the breasts of a woman by authority above me because of their sexual nature.
You have successfully sexualized a basic human function.
My skin is so sexual now that I’m blamed for it
A continuous cycle of
What did I do
What did I do
What did I do
Not what did he do
If a man can’t help himself to me than I had a coming
If I am raped than it is never the rapist’s fault the question always asked is
“Well what were you wearing?”
Dogs can understand the word ‘no’ better than some of the men at my school
Not understanding the line between yes and no
Consent and non-consent
They like to pretend that no means “convince me”
That “no” means that you can puzzle piece your way into me
Tell me how I look like flowers
Turn me into a poem and spread my legs
Plant your seed into me and tell me how I look like flowers
Grow me into a graveyard
And allow history to repeat itself because that’s just what people like me get
People like me
Women
Not even people anymore remember I am flowers
In graveyards
I am 17 years old.