No one can hurt you unless you let them
…
It’s an awful phrase, isn’t it?
The idea that you are the sole thing
to keep yourself from getting hurt?
Like the only way you’re going to get hurt
is because you allow someone to hurt you?
Or because you allow their actions to hurt you
instead of brushing it off the way some people think
victims ought to?

Yet no one ever tells you
that sometimes you have no control over the situation.
That people will hurt you whether you allow it
or if you tell them to f*** off back to hell where they so clearly belong.
No one ever reminds you that
the bad things that happen to you are not always your fault.
Instead, they ask you what you were wearing,
why you were out that late,
what you thought was going to happen
when you said you’d love to go on a date with him sometime.

Because people will hurt you
whether you want them to or not
and it will burn through you like
the cigarette bud that was pressed against your skin.
And you certainly didn’t allow that
now did you?

Because no one ever tells you how to say no.
They teach you from a young age
that no one has a right to touch you unless you want them to
but they never teach you the tactful way to say
“Put your hand up my shorts again
and you might lose an arm.”
So you stay silent
and then let the people you tell
ask you why you didn’t say no.

It doesn’t matter
that you never wanted this.
You were young and stupid and naive
and that just becomes another sticking point
for harsh words to embed themselves into your skin.
You should have waited until you were older
to even consider those things.
They don’t comfort you,
It doesn’t matter
that you went through this too young
When does too young become old enough?
When are you old enough to be violated appropriately?

Because he hurt you
and you sure as f*** didn’t allow it.
But that didn’t make the pain you felt
any less.
Because sometimes you can’t just brush it off
the way some people think victims ought to.