- Published on
"Cornered" - mixed media on paper, 19" x 17.5". Available here and at Artfinder.
Oh sweet petunia.
I didn't expect this little one to appear in the corner of a room. Sitting on the floor, all by herself. Voiceless. But she doesn't have to be. I can give her a voice.
This week, the news is filled with a woman brave enough to use her voice regarding a sexual assault. I am watching the world respond, waiting for a groundswell of support and a united determination to address the issue.
Why don't more women speak out when sexual assaults occur? Exactly because of what is happening to Christine Blasey Ford.
Oh sweet petunia.
I didn't expect this little one to appear in the corner of a room. Sitting on the floor, all by herself. Voiceless. But she doesn't have to be. I can give her a voice.
This week, the news is filled with a woman brave enough to use her voice regarding a sexual assault. I am watching the world respond, waiting for a groundswell of support and a united determination to address the issue.
Why don't more women speak out when sexual assaults occur? Exactly because of what is happening to Christine Blasey Ford.
So how can I support her? By adding my voice to hers and speaking out, knowing it won't change the past and won't heal my pain, but might, just maybe, give courage to others.
I am also a victim of sexual assault. It was decades ago when I was still a youngster. At the time, I believed it was my fault. Because I was surely a bad person, because I didn't deserve to be respected. And I believed that no one would believe me because I was a child.
In later years I wondered how many others were subsequently assaulted by my attacker, and whether my voice would have stopped him. And I think, perhaps, many of us who have been assaulted wonder that same thing...until we see someone else come forward and be called names, denied investigation and receive death threats. And then we know our voices only make us unsafe, exposed and victimized again.
When an adult is not received with kindness and understanding as she gives voice to her sexual assault experience, how can we expect our children and grandchildren to feel safe coming forward at the time these things occur? I think of what this week's news is telling my own children about the world, and I cringe. What if, WHAT IF one of our own children does not come forward after an assault because of how victims are treated in today's society?
Enough, enough already.
I am also a victim of sexual assault. It was decades ago when I was still a youngster. At the time, I believed it was my fault. Because I was surely a bad person, because I didn't deserve to be respected. And I believed that no one would believe me because I was a child.
In later years I wondered how many others were subsequently assaulted by my attacker, and whether my voice would have stopped him. And I think, perhaps, many of us who have been assaulted wonder that same thing...until we see someone else come forward and be called names, denied investigation and receive death threats. And then we know our voices only make us unsafe, exposed and victimized again.
When an adult is not received with kindness and understanding as she gives voice to her sexual assault experience, how can we expect our children and grandchildren to feel safe coming forward at the time these things occur? I think of what this week's news is telling my own children about the world, and I cringe. What if, WHAT IF one of our own children does not come forward after an assault because of how victims are treated in today's society?
Enough, enough already.
#fearlesswarrior
Jen, I am grateful for your voice, your generosity in doing what it is that you can do. The ripples of sound waves will not go unnoticed, dear wholehearted soul.
I don't think of myself as a victim of sexual assault. But now today, after hearing your voice, I'm wondering, well, what the heck was it when a college friend violated me sexually under very bizarre circumstances? I was surely confused, and extricated myself from the mess, but I'm realizing now that an ongoing confusion has come from the fact that this was a same-sex friend. Huh.
We all have so much to learn.
Men and women, same sex or opposite, unwanted physical advances are an assault. How craftily the world has tried to make us think these things are nothing. So much to learn, so much to share. Thank you for telling your story, which will surely have others examining some situations in their own pasts as well! xo
It is deplorable how women who come forward are treated. It is sickening and heart wrenching what goes on in other countries. But here in America??? We are no better. How can this be????
I was recently told of a friend whose two granddaughters have been raped on a college campus. And they are so fearful, that they will not report it. They fear for their lives. How is that right? And so these attackers will keep hurting women. Because they know they can get aways with it.
Ok, shutting up.
High five, and HUGS!
I am so sad for your friend's granddaughters...and you're right, these events sound like something out of another country where women are treated as second class citizens. And yet this is HERE. Please don't shut up...not ever! We have to be LOUD on this topic!!!
High five and hugs to you!!!