Don’t call it bravery.
Why many women don’t report sexual assaults.
Don’t call it BRAVERY
….
Don’t call it BRAVERY
…. it makes denouncing and sexual assaults an exceptional matter. There is nothing extraordinary in sexual assaults, neither should be in reporting it, it is a widespread plague, and it affects more women than we want to believe. Call it RESPONSIBILITY.
As much as it is brave of women to speak up about sexual abuses and harassment, the most important thing to say is not that someone who denounces or reports is brave but has been acting responsibly.
Bravery makes the events/crime exceptional; there is nothing extraordinary in sexual assaults and rapes. 8 out of 10 women have been sexually harassed or assaulted during their lifetime — it is not an exception. It is a defining part of every woman’s life. Cultural conditioning wants to make us believe that it is an exceptional event. So exceptional that it should not even be declared, denounced, let alone be talked about, you should not bring it up, and if it is brought up, the same denouncing it is subjected to scrutiny, doubt, condemning, and victim shaming and someone then you call it bravery. For anyone that has been doing rape or sexual assault, there should be a person who has reported it. But what it is this bravery? Is anyone who witnessed and reported a crime like a stabbing, a burglary, or that had been the victim of an attempt of homicide is the same person called brave if he/she reports? No, it is a right and an act of social responsibility, but not for sexual assaults. She or he is brave, implying that she is defying the status quo and challenging something. Whoever challenges and attempts to defy a status quo is a disturbance somehow to a system that fights not to be changed, a system that should not be challenged, a system that most social forces try to maintain for what it is. Whoever challenges a structure is subjected to doubt, to criticisms. … oh yes, some call him/her…brave as if they are saying, I would not do it.
#metoo #ibelieveyou
#sexualassault #rape #victimsshaming
#REPORTING #POLICE #culturalconditioning #metoo