You Asked for It — a poem by Julia Francisco-Rodas

You Asked for It

You asked for it by wearing that skirt
You asked for it by wearing those shorts
You asked for it like a typical flirt 
You asked for it  by being a woman
You deserve it for not saying no 
You deserve it for being a hoe 
Your jeans were to tight 
You didn’t want to fight
You asked for it 

But did they really ask for it?

Did she ask to be tricked? To be lied to, violated, and stripped? 
Her jeans in that car along with her will, like so many others she was stripped of her voice, power, and consent

Threatened by death
An 18 year old girl 
Pulled up her jeans and of the law she became dependent

Blamed by society and later a court 
Nicknamed things like easy and whore

Many like her, suffering in silence and public
And everyone like her, never having asked for it

There are many stories here
Some so sick you’ll wish they disappeared

Like that of a 9 year old walking in shorts and preyed on by sickos 
Or a 15  year old daughter raped by the people she thought were “amigos” 
That of a boy attacked and told to provide oral sex at gunpoint 
Oh how society never disappoints (*SARCASTIC TONE)

We call them skanks and attention seekers
But never listen to their hurtful secrets 

I was once told by a friend
A secret so shameful and how it happened
His hands violated her body and petrified her soul…it was to sudden to process.. but his words would echo for months to come”you asked for it”, tortured by the thought that she had led him on, but stunned at how her cousin could possibly believe she wanted him 
She swore herself to silence 
And in doing so came more violence

The following she described 
Along with 1 in 6 Americans who experienced attempted or completed rape

Echoing words, flashbacks ,and shame 
It was easier for her to stay silent than to say his name 
Taken back in the van where it happened
Her heart was racing but more so saddened 
She’d see him and sweat
Be among family but also in the presence of threat 
Overwhelmed, ashamed , and feeling guilty
She believed she was filthy 

So i lifted her chin 
Reassured her she hadn’t sinned and told her

It wasn’t your fault
It wasn’t your clothes 
It wasn’t your friendliness 
It wasn’t your response 
It wasn’t you
She DID NOT ask for it, he did not ask for it, they did not ask for it, we did not ask for it, I did not ask for it, no one ever asks for it because there is never an excuse or invitation to harass, abuse, assault or rape

— a poem by Julia Francisco-Rodas