MALE PRIVILEGE by D. A. Clarke
1981
A poem for men who don't understand
what we mean, when we say men
have "it."
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 crying,
and Privilege is not seeing your stripped,
humiliated body
plastered in celebration
across every magazine
rack.
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 decent 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 in the TV show not the
dumb broad,
living where your genitals are 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 over-represented in Congress
and are not strip searched
for a traffic ticket or used as a dart
board
by your friendly
mechanic,
Privilege is seeing your bearded face reflected 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
volumes of poetry
and more than your share of the couch unchallenged.
It
is your 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?