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Jasmin Roberts, performing “The Scorpion & The Turtle”.
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Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)
0:01
for Christine Blasi Ford the Scorpion
0:06
asked the turtle for a ride across the
0:08
water the turtle says I’m afraid you’ll
0:11
sting me
0:12
the Scorpion promises he won’t because
0:14
then he would just drown – the Scorpion
0:17
hops on the turtles back and stings him
0:20
he says I can’t help it it’s my nature
0:24
I shared a womb with male priviledge we
0:29
dumped our bath toys in the toilet as
0:31
toddlers climbed fences in second grade
0:33
spent hours making him pretty playing
0:36
Jasmine’s beauty shop I read his books
0:39
to him in high school filled out his
0:41
college applications all for him to drop
0:44
out and question my intelligence my twin
0:47
brother doesn’t believe me when I tell
0:49
him that I have had to kick 23 his men
0:53
in the dick wants to know if they all
0:56
really were asking for it or maybe if I
0:59
was he doesn’t understand the threat of
1:02
rape thinks I should wait for a man to
1:05
come for me to strike he is 6 feet 3
1:09
inches tall all 300 pounds of him are
1:13
about consent
1:14
so he’s hell-bent on convincing me that
1:17
not all of the 23 would have assaulted
1:21
me he doesn’t know that in a fight that
1:24
your gender has already lost you
1:26
hesitating could cost you your life
1:29
he says I must attract this kind of
1:33
violence maybe the way a deer attracts
1:36
its predator by existing the way a black
1:39
back attracts a bullet by daring to
1:41
stand so straight this boy who had to
1:44
pick me to play at recess because the
1:46
other boys wouldn’t because somehow my
1:49
jump shot didn’t speak for itself until
1:51
a boy spoke for me this man who wrestled
1:55
with me into our 18th year knowing full
1:58
well his strength putting me into gentle
2:01
leg locks and fake chokehold succumbing
2:04
to the wriggling feet and tickling
2:06
fingers I used to beat him laughing at
2:09
the
2:10
certainty of the Scorpion and the turtle
2:12
playing together but now I want to drown
2:16
him for his nature yes I say I have
2:20
kicked 23 men in the dick and I don’t
2:24
regret not waiting to see which ones
2:26
were going to sting me for my trouble I
2:29
was conceived bathed and raised with the
2:33
Scorpion and now that we are full-grown
2:35
I cannot look at him he is a terrifying
2:38
funhouse mirror image of me the way he
2:41
is so big and I am so small the way he
2:45
is so dangerous and I am in danger my
2:49
twin brother believes the threat is
2:51
mostly imaginary and I am too old to
2:54
wrestle with him now and isn’t that what
2:57
it is to be born in this body to be too
2:59
tired to fight but too stubborn to lie
3:02
down and die to feed the souls of the
3:05
boys who will later speak you out of
3:07
existence he has a daughter now I watch
3:11
him cast her as the turtle I wonder how
3:15
old she will be the first time his
3:17
scorpion tongue says something that
3:19
makes her want to drown him too
3:24
[Applause]
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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