Kevin Kantor, a spoken word poet from the University of Northern Colorado, used the platform of the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) as a way to address the rape culture we have in the United States. In Kantor’s poem he tells of his own experience as a male victim of sexual violence and how social media, specifically Facebook, exacerbated it. He paints a detailed, personal experience for the audience, evoking empathy from them with the use of vivid imagery and metaphor. Kantor also uses anaphora and antanaclasis in order to emphasize consent, as well as personal anecdote and strength that comes from trauma as tools to relay his message. In Kantor’s poem “People You May Know” he uses imagery and metaphor in his slam poem as a way …show more content…
He does not speak of sexual assault in a vague and abstract manner, but tells of his own experience. Kantor exposes rape culture for what it is in the United States when he tells of the two officers that came to speak to him and said that if he did not give the act a name then it “didn’t happen” and that he “obviously… could have fought back”. The lack of sympathy that Kantor relays that the officers had exemplifies the rape culture previously mentioned. Rather than the officers doing their jobs and receiving information in order to catch the attacker, they take part in victim-blaming by saying that Kantor could have “fought back”. Kantor also goes on to emphasize his point even further when he says that “no one comes running for young boys who cry rape”. This line is particularly striking as it points out the lack of support and belief that men can be sexually assaulted. The officers do not believe his story, thinking that since he is a man he could have fought the attacker off. This personal anecdote serves as a tool of pathos, evoking empathy from his more understanding audience, a group of other slam poets whom he felt comfortable sharing