Alex Conall, social justice bard (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alexconall) wrote2013-12-07 10:20 pm
alexconall) wrote2013-12-07 10:20 pm
this is why I tell stories (let it crumble) [new prompter perk for December Fiction Fishbowl]
To control the future, control the present.
To control the present, control the past.
Tell stories about great heroic men
And never great heroic women
So only men will think they can be heroes,
So only men will think they can be great.
Tell stories about women
Only when you must,
Only to remind women that
They are quest objects, objects of art,
There to be romanced, nothing more.
Never tell stories about people who are
Women when the zeroth birthday balloons said it's a boy
Or otherwise not a manly man or girlish woman.
These people are not allowed to exist,
So there must never be stories about them.
Never tell stories about men who love men
Except as brothers or friends or father and son.
Never tell stories about women who love women
At all.
Tell stories about black and brown and bronze and gold and copper people
Only when you must,
Only to remind these people that
They are not people.
Never tell stories about people who
Lack sight or hearing or the legs to walk
Except to show how noble they are
Enduring their suffering.
Never tell stories about people who
Have brains outside the ordinary
Because there is something wrong with them.
Never tell stories about the poor
Unless it is a story about how
Through hard work and perhaps good fortune
They became rich
Because such stories keep the poor
Thinking they too can become rich
And not thinking about guillotines
Or firing squads.
Tell only the stories that remind everyone
Of who is meant to rule the world.
If other stories are told,
If women start hearing that they can be heroes,
That they can be great,
That they can be the center of the story,
That their stories need not only be romance,
That their sisters and female friends and mothers and daughters and wives
Are as important as their brothers and male friends and fathers and sons and husbands,
That they can be women though born with a penis,
That they can be human though born with dark skin,
That they can be people though with disability,
That they can be worth something whatever their wealth—
If all the people who do not rule
Were to join together against those who do,
Were to tell their own stories, their own truths,
The world would crumble.
this is why I tell stories (let it crumble) by Elizabeth Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
To control the present, control the past.
Tell stories about great heroic men
And never great heroic women
So only men will think they can be heroes,
So only men will think they can be great.
Tell stories about women
Only when you must,
Only to remind women that
They are quest objects, objects of art,
There to be romanced, nothing more.
Never tell stories about people who are
Women when the zeroth birthday balloons said it's a boy
Or otherwise not a manly man or girlish woman.
These people are not allowed to exist,
So there must never be stories about them.
Never tell stories about men who love men
Except as brothers or friends or father and son.
Never tell stories about women who love women
At all.
Tell stories about black and brown and bronze and gold and copper people
Only when you must,
Only to remind these people that
They are not people.
Never tell stories about people who
Lack sight or hearing or the legs to walk
Except to show how noble they are
Enduring their suffering.
Never tell stories about people who
Have brains outside the ordinary
Because there is something wrong with them.
Never tell stories about the poor
Unless it is a story about how
Through hard work and perhaps good fortune
They became rich
Because such stories keep the poor
Thinking they too can become rich
And not thinking about guillotines
Or firing squads.
Tell only the stories that remind everyone
Of who is meant to rule the world.
If other stories are told,
If women start hearing that they can be heroes,
That they can be great,
That they can be the center of the story,
That their stories need not only be romance,
That their sisters and female friends and mothers and daughters and wives
Are as important as their brothers and male friends and fathers and sons and husbands,
That they can be women though born with a penis,
That they can be human though born with dark skin,
That they can be people though with disability,
That they can be worth something whatever their wealth—
If all the people who do not rule
Were to join together against those who do,
Were to tell their own stories, their own truths,
The world would crumble.
this is why I tell stories (let it crumble) by Elizabeth Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.