The past year has been an incredibly important time for women to stick together, share their stories, and inspire others. The #MeToo movement sparked an uproar in the social community, when women all around the world opened up and shared their experiences and stories of being sexually abused. At the 2018 Women’s March, hundreds of thousands of women all across the globe took the streets to make a powerful statement: they won’t be silenced any longer.
On Saturday, January 20th in New York City, singer Halsey took the stage and recited a poem that anyone who heard it will never forget. (Note: This poem talks about sexual assault and rape. The content may be triggering.)
Halsey’s moving poem began like this:
“It’s 2009 and I’m 14 and I’m crying/ Not really sure where I am but I’m holding the hand of my best friend Sam/ In the waiting room of a Planned Parenthood”
The poem continues while Halsey recounts on her own experience with sexual assault.
“He’s got a case of Matchbox cars and he says he’ll teach me to play the guitar if I just keep quiet/ And the stairwell beside apartment 1245 will haunt me in my sleep for as long as I’m alive/ And I’m too young to know why it aches in my thighs, but I must lie, I must lie.”
The singer then tells a story about being raped by a man she was dating, which according to a study done by the National Violence Resource Center will happen to 1 in 10 women. Halsey used her platform to shed light on this statistic and how much further the #MeToo movement goes. These conversations need to happen, women need to be heard and need to be taken seriously.
As the poem comes to an end Halsey mentions the trial that just ended between Larry Nassar and all of his victims of sexual assault. Women in that crowd were marching and rallying for them. For all of the women that were too afraid to speak up, too afraid of what their consequences might be.
“And every friend that I know has a story like mine/ And the world tells me we should take it as a compliment/ But then heroes like Ashley and Simone and Gabby, McKayla and Gaga, Rosario, Aly/ Remind me this is the beginning, it is not the finale/ And that’s why we’re here/ And that’s why we rally.”
Halsey’s poem showed that maybe if these #MeToo stories continued to come to light the way they have been, maybe it will help culture change. Maybe one day our children will grow up in a much different, much better world. Keep telling your story, one day will come where no one ever has to say “Me too” again.
To watch Halsey’s full poem click here.