The following is a speech written as a model for my Public Speaking class. The speech itself is very informal and meant to be partially impromptu to keep in the bounds of a "soapbox" styled speech . The audience should engage with the speaker and vice versa.
Soapbox Speech
A few of my lifetime flashbulb memories range from the
minutes and hours surrounding the 9/11 catastrophe, injuring my knee my
senior year of college, and The Boston Marathon Bombings…With a flashbulb memory the
time, place, and the way people specifically react are all easily recalled, so
as I watched the Chris Jans clip when it hit the media a few weeks ago I surprised myself,
because I immediately AND SPECIFICALLY recalled something
that happened over seventeen years ago.
It was my freshmen year of high school. His name
was Ryan. He played hockey. I remember I was in theology class with a
substitute that was in for our usual teacher. At one point, I needed to
retrieve something from the front of the room. I walked past this Ryan, picked up what I needed, and then passed
him once more as I retraced my steps back to my seat. The second time I passed
him wasn't without incident. He made a snide joke about my “big ass”… and then
he hit me, smacked me right then and there in front of the entire class--just
as you saw in that video. Actually, I would argue that it was even worse than
the video. This kid did it in front of my entire class. It was horrifying and I
was fifteen years old.
Now, you guys know me a bit by now. So I'm going to
ask you: how do you think the 15 year old Ms. Boutin, responded? Here are three
options. After I give you all three you need to guess the way you think I
responded, so listen carefully: Option 1—everyone in the class held their
breath and waited for my reaction. I panicked but tried to diffuse the
situation so I quickly looked at Ryan, laughed it off a bit, and awkwardly
returned to my seat, Option 2— I turned directly to the teacher to protest and
asked “what are you going to do about the pig in front of me?” Option 3— I
instinctively smacked him in the face, I then crouched down to his level and said,
"That’s sexual harassment, bitch!"
So which option did the young Ms. Boutin do? Option 3.
I must admit that I’m
fairly proud of my fifteen-year-old self. While there is room for improvement
in the way I reacted (understatement of the year), I had made a split second decision
to defend myself, put him in his place and did so with strength.
After recalling these
events, I did a little Google investigating. I came to understand that my
reaction and the uncomfortable nature of this altercation stems from the feminist
Objectification Theory: Women of most cultures are seen as sexual objects that
are there for the pleasure of men’s sexual desires. Examples of such conduct include
men’s visibly scrutinizing a woman’s figure or making comments about her body
parts, giving whistles or cat calls, sexual harassment, unwanted sexual
advances or sexual assault. The media also play a role in these practices when
they depict women as mere sexual objects. These experiences contribute to some
women’s developing mental health problems, such as eating disorders, depressive
symptoms and substance abuse problems.
To study how women cope with such sexually oppressive experiences,
researchers studied the responses to an online questionnaire of young adult
heterosexual undergraduate women from a university in the Southeastern region
of the US.
Their findings show that young women experience increased
psychological distress when they are being sexually objectified. Women with low
resilience are especially vulnerable, and tend to internalize such behavior.
Some women feel confused and shameful, and reason that their own inferiority is
the cause of such bad experiences. They therefore blame themselves, rather than
the perpetrators, and this causes psychological distress (Springer Select).
I can’t believe that watching
something so silly sent my mind back 17 years. I’m surprised I still recall
those events and surprised that I still get embarrassed, but proud that I
resisted that altercation with strength and courage. If I had chosen to react
with “Option 1” by simply, lightly, laughing at the situation I would not
recall that altercation with pride. I would be embarrassed that I turtled at
such a crucial moment.
Gentlemen, ladies. If you
think that this behavior demonstrated by the man you saw in the clip is “Fresh”
or “Funny” and isn't so bad… or maybe you didn't think that this incident wasn't
a big deal… I hope you prepare yourself to be smacked, b****.
