If you are a fan of vagina, breast, and bu*t
Eat this hamburger
If you like seeing women in bikinis and booty shorts
Watch this sport
Drink this beer
Drive this truck
Use this cologne
Chew this gum
Dine at this restaurant
Buy this…
Anything
You see the problem does not begin in the bravo
The problem goes beyond pimps and Johns
The problem starts
With little boys like me
This
Is how I learned to be a man
I remember being three chin hairs past puberty watching basketball
When a commercial came on
A nameless model
In a tiny bathing suit
Was throwing soap suds all over herself
And a black SUV
All because Carl's Jr. wanted to sell me
A sandwich
Everything I saw
The car
The meat
The woman
Could all be mine
I just had to open my wallet
And buy combo number 3
And buy her dinner
And buy her a drink
And buy her a ring
And buy her
But be a gentleman about it
Tip her well at the gentleman's club
Take her to a five star restaurant so she really does owe you
This
Is not a holier than thou rant
I also have been in bondage to my desires
Now I'm Harriet Tubman pleading with slaves who believe their master is kind
Enjoying your vice is not the same as freedom
Understand
We have been brain washed
My entire life
I was taught that buying s**ual satisfaction
Is an American right
Love?
Is a sentimental fantasy
Sex is harmless pleasure
And yes my beautiful parents taught me better
But they could not save me
From the s**y cheeseburgers
The commercials
The billboards
The little boy talk in middle school locker rooms
The problem does not begin in the brothel
The problem starts
With little boys like me
Hearing myths
About virginity
Like
Having it
Makes a girl “pure”
But makes a boy
Less of a man
While taking it makes him more of one
But giving it makes a girl a who*e
And having it stolen makes her unstable
Unhealable
Untouchable
The truth is
The purity of your spirit has nothing to do with your s**ual history
There are saints with a dark past and virgins with lustful hearts
Discipline and self-control makes you more of a man not less of one
And any woman that endures abuse and survives should be honored for her strength
Not despised for her scars
We have all been betrayed
By each other
Pointing fingers is pointless
Macho men and seductive women are boys and girls living out the lives we were taught
We did not choose this time and culture
We are both victim and culprit
We have all suffered
But we are more than our suffering
We are able to heal
Together
To truth away the lies
To rewire our manipulated minds
To remember the beauty of our bodies will never be an enterprise
We are nature that cannot be owned
We are mountain ocean moon
We are creatures reflecting the divinity who created us
We are loved
We are love that can never be sold
We are beauty that can never be bought