‘HOW NOT TO BE A STATISTIC’... THEY SAY

ONE be invisible not too reserved or you’re a challenge not too revealing or you’re an invite be as they say just right somewhere between Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene a woman revered a woman condemned Pope Gregory the Great damned Magdalene’s fate as just another woman whose legacy’s a label given by men

TWO be scary scarier than them squawk like a pterodactyl fight like a black belt pull out your lipstick switch flick blade dig your nails into skin at least there will be evidence to prove what you say because you know it’s a he says she says she says he says situation

THREE yell fire not help FIRE! the crowds will STOP

DROP

AND ROLL up for the show a woman burning at the stake no one wants the responsibility of help did someone say accountability?

they ask me again if I remembered to yell fire not help

FOUR you should make your hand the ceiling of your cup a roof if you will sheltering you from being roof-ied but then again… afterall if there are countless rules on how we can survive I wonder if you were taught any on how to let us live our own damn

lives because surprisingly I don’t want to spend a l l o f m y t i m e fighting to not be a statistic

FIVE why order a drink at all? if you’re drunk when it happens they will call you the fool never him a criminal

SIX don’t walk alone if you want to make it home it doesn’t matter if it’s night broad daylight through parks city blocks or even the bathroom we travel in packs not because we are wolves but because we are hunted and told to believe there is safety in numbers so when you tell me how to avoid it I will tell you the only real way for me not to be a statistic is for you not to be one either because if you’re not a perpetrator then I don’t have to be a survivor

Words by Grace Atta

SEVEN… but I don’t wish to tell you seven eight nine or three hundred and fifty five because surely there should not be that many ways for women to die