Literary Magazine
Conscious Consent by Olivia Marsh
Consent is not just a word in our language.
Consent is a choice that all parties must condone
No doesn’t mean yes
Maybe doesn’t mean yes
No response doesn’t mean yes
“It was the alcohol”
“I didn’t know what I was doing”
“Her skirt was too short”
“Her shirt, too low cut”
“she was asking for it”
Alcohol doesn’t lift up someone’s skirt and enter their body forcefully
we are not raped by the vodka
we are raped by people who are more concerned with their self confidence than our freedom
my body is not in a supermarket aisle waiting to be selected
When did expressing ourself through clothing become an invitation to be taken advantage of
I never got the memo that drinking a little too much makes you go from being a woman to an object
we are not objects
we are not waiting to be forced, pressured, or threatened
we are not waiting for you to assume what we want
But they were
Curious
having too much fun
craving that sense of power, domination
Well that craving and fun abolishes the victims right to be who they want
to express themselves
to take advantage of the gift of life they were given
But don’t worry, just because you think you now have all the power, doesn’t mean we won’t fight back
doesn’t mean we won’t stop writing
doesn’t mean we won’t stop telling our stories
The Fight by Asher Grossman
The waters were smooth; the sun was slowly fading below the horizon; it was paradise. I was traversing the calm water by foot when I saw him. They are everywhere in Costa Rica. The locals say they are friendly, but I beg to differ. Suddenly, he approached me, I was in the water and he emerged from the sand. The glaring eyes looking at me from either side, the smooth way he swam through the water just as if he was a water snake made me sense an attack was fast approaching. There he was, showing his dominance in front of me, ready to brawl. I promise he was out to get me, or at least impede my venture to the warm sand. He could smell my fear. I stared him down, attempted to move to the right but he followed, always a step ahead of me. I began to truly believe he was out to get me, even though I had already been constantly told stories of his friendliness—I refused the knowledge. I thought about what to do then I finally escaped with a swift hop over his back. I’ll admit it was just a stingray, but my mindset was not of the Costa Rican locals, “los ticos and ticas.” If I truly believed that this creature was only curious about me, I would not have tried to run away from it; maybe I would have done the opposite and learned from it, sucked in all the knowledge it had, and truly learned; yet I did not, I missed an opportunity. When I exited the water the ticos approached me and said, “You ran away, why?” I did not know how to answer this, we live in two different worlds and only had a basic understanding of each other’s languages, as a result communication was hard.
From our broken conversation I learned we live in the same world, we are both simply human, yet our mindsets were different. I could not possibly live with a Costa Rican mindset while in the city of Los Angeles. I would not be able to live like them, I could not adapt to the wilderness as they do. I couldn’t adapt to unusual creatures, such as the stingray, in my surrounding spatial radius. Is this a benefit or not? We learn to live in our own world, and find it difficult to live in other people’s worlds. What does this mean? Possibly, that as humans, we are unable to adapt and live in the wild if we are used to a city. The sun disappeared during my altercation with the ray and when I exited the water, unharmed, it was dark. I missed out on beautiful sunset.
