【Chris Cassidy Archives】

A pattern has emerged with every new allegation of sexual misconduct. After the bombshell comes an "apology" letter — now the accused's ubiquitous and Chris Cassidy Archivesperfunctory mechanism for responding.

Many have found the letters hollow, insincere, and insufficient. But one woman has altered the apology letters to give them new meaning.

Poet Isobel O'Hare is creating striking "erasure poems" out of the apologies, and posting them on her Instagram. She has created poems out of the apologies of Louis C.K., Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and more.

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"As new abuse allegations come out day after day, and each man releases his statement, I started to notice patterns in the language they use," said O'Hare in an email to Mashable. "Either because they are following a boilerplate PR format or because they are unwittingly revealing universal truths about male dominance and power."

An erasure poem is a form in which an artist redacts a pre-existing text — in this case, the apology letter — leaving a few words visible, that together, form a new message.

As Rachel Stone writes in The New Republic, the erasure poem can "expose the human cost of suppression, and symbolically restore a voice to the silenced."

The interpretation of this form as giving a "voice to the silenced" works particularly well for O'Hare's work. With the exception of Louis C.K. who goes out of his way to say "these stories are true," the letters are mostly defensive, and work to shirk responsibility while rebutting the statements of victims — who in many cases have stayed silent for decades.

"I want people to see what these statements are really conveying," O'Hare said, "which I think is a very male narcissism that demands constant attention, praise, and forgiveness. I hope that the form of erasure itself draws attention to the fact that these men have in fact erased the voices of their victims, for many years, some very deliberately and litigiously."

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The New Republicreports that erasure poems have gained new popularity in the wake of the Trump regime.

Artist jayy dodd created an erasure poem out of President Trump's inauguration speech, which went viral. Currently, there are over 11,000 posts tagged #erasurepoetry or #erasurepoem on Instagram.

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Poet Raye Hendrix followed Isabel O'Hare's lead, and created an erasure poem out of the statements of support for Roy Moore, the Alabama senatorial candidate accused of sexual misconduct with teenagers. Rose McGowan also shared O'Hare's work with her followers.

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It's hard to say whether the new messages themselves, or the act of blacking out and reclaiming the text of these alleged sexual abusers, is what gives these pieces their power.

But jarring artistic takes on the cultural conversation like O'Hare's can help us cut beyond vitriol, and think hard about the politics of language and power.

"I hope survivors start erasing the hell out of the words of abusive, powerful people," O'Hare said. "I hope space can open up for vulnerable, silenced, marginalized individuals to make the kind of art that deserves to be seen. And I want powerful abusive people to feel scared for once."

You can see all of O'Hare's erasure poetry on her Instagram.

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