Trigger Warning
Many men believe that they hold the power of validating the existence and worth of women with the unsolicited wink of their eye, lick of their lips, disgusting words, or dick pics. So I fill my belly with gasoline on the days when men count me among the pretty things; Just another target for them to aim their desperation and ignorance.
These pretty girls, the same ones whose bodies adorn ditches along the side of the freeway; Whose blood stained the sheets of greedy boys who grew up to be men who took things too far, claiming to have never learned the definition of no. These pretty girls, targets at which a backwards society insists on pointing its dirty finger every time a man gets caught.
It was the incantation of the pretty girl’s thighs in those jeans. He was under her spell, therefore, he should not be held accountable for his sins. She should rot in Hell for wearing the perfect shade of lipstick that he mistook as an open invitation; her body his for the taking. It’s not his fault that the strands of her DNA wrapped themselves around each other in a way that made her physique something impossible to not force himself upon.
Blame genetics. Blame evolution. Blame her parents. Blame the planets for the way that they aligned in the sky that night. Whatever you do, don’t you dare blame the man who drained the life from her eyes.
I pray for the pretty girls who were all just asking for it, by daring to breathe in his general vicinity: Each breath a reminder of the air that he wastes. I pray for the pretty girls who had the courage to walk away: Each step triggering his underlying Mommy issues, and reminding him of every other woman who has ever rejected him. How dare they? I pray for the pretty girls who don’t seek the validation of their beauty and worth from men. These are the girls who often go missing, never to be seen or heard from again. I pray for the pretty girls who know that they are incredible all on their own.
Because more often than not, these pretty girls are the ones who will always be blamed when they never find their way back home.
