You Need to Hear "Just Another Rape Poem"

"Every story sounds the same when you stop listening," Brenna Twohy says in her phenomenal spoken word poem "Just Another Rape Poem," performed in Phoenix, Arizona. The poem takes on anyone who is tired of hearing rape poems and does so with lines that are sure to stick with people long after they hear it. If we needed another reason to think Brenna Twohy is awesome, this is definitely does gives us one.

This isn't the first poem to take note of how awful and ignorant it is when people who complain about being tired of rape poems, but honestly, this stuff bears repeating as many times as possible. Because, as Twohy points out, "You are staring at a world on fire complaining about how ugly you think the ashes are," and that is not only dumb and shortsighted, it is actively hurtful to everyone who is, in this metaphor, trapped in the flames.

Rape poems are never comfortable or easy to hear. The impulse to react defensively by not listening is understandable, but also unacceptable. Not listening is not a solution. Not listening means being part of the problems. When you live in a country where someone is sexually assaulted every two minutes, the least you can do is listen.

So when you hear rape poems — like this one or this one — listen. Because as Brenna Twohy says, "The poems are not the problem." The problem, is the guy in the back of the room, not listening.