These are the voices we've taken...

I wanted to write something straight from the heart
I've been reading a lot so I know
That I feel things for people I will never meet
For the things in their lives that I cannot take back
For the stolen childhoods
The ruined dreams
The tainted bodies
The scarred remains
I feel something for people I will never know
And I felt like writing it down, so here goes…

I was “friend bullied” as a child, my problems are different from yours
Yet statistically speaking I got let off light
No one was interested in touching me
No one wanted to know my name
I was invisible, a puppet on strings, told what to do
And I constantly think that this somehow
Shaped my life
Made me who I am today
That without this trauma, I'd be someone else
That I don't want to be, despite hating myself
I feel like my problems aren't as bad as yours but that just isn't true
No bullying is fair, or just or right
It's not OK to ignore, it's not boys being boys
It's not girls growing up
It's fucking torture going to school but I can't imagine what it was like for you
I can't imagine what it's like for your voice to be stolen

I've read about girls who've been followed home
Been forced upon and raped and hurt
Like it's not our god given right, to feel safe in our streets
With the people around us
Like it's not our fucking right to do what we want
And wear what we like
Without being vilified
Without thinking that every fucking man around us is a threat
And I can’t imagine what it's like to be that demonized
I can only know what it’s like to be cat-called, to be followed a metre
By men in a car
Who screamed at me when I flipped them the finger
YOU HOE, YOU FAT ASS HOE
I was fifteen
But they never touched me
I can only know what it’s like to be told you are friendzoning
You are frigid
You're a boy
I cannot know what it's like to be forced upon
Not really
I don't know what it's like for your voice to be stolen

I want to help the people who are told they are wrong
That they should be allowed to love
I want to help the people who are told they are evil
Because of their DNA
Because of something they can't change
I've never been that person, so shoved down in the dirt that the tiniest gesture of friendship
Is so valuable
So welcome, it doesn't matter where it comes from
I've never been oppressed, yeah my life isn't great
But I'm middle class white, so I don't get to complain
I've never been you, I've never been chased, I've never been beaten
And I want so much more for you
I want people to understand
I don't even know where this is going anymore
I'm sorry

Look,
So many people are suffering
Children are bullied everyday and they can't tell anyone
What's the fucking PTA going to do about it?
Woman are followed home because men think that because they dress a certain way
They are objects
Belongings
I want my god given right to walk home in heels safely
If you touch me I will fight tooth and claw and you will not walk away unscathed
Everyday someone is told they are not worthy
That they're ugly
Broken
Stupid
Slutty
Somehow wrong, and they can't fight back because fighting never helped anyone
And violence isn't the answer
But I don't fucking see you doing anything
These are the voices we've stolen
These are the rights we have taken
These are the parents burying their children
These are the woman afraid to go out
These are the boys who pretend they are someone else
These are the girls cutting themselves in the bathroom just to make it hurt somewhere else
Everyone has a story
But nobody listens

I wish I could give back the voices we've taken…