How do we stop the stigma without speaking out?
‘How do we stop the stigma without speaking out?’ I read this quote today, in a fiction book called ‘Playing Nice’ by JP Delaney. It struck me, and it struck me hard. I’ve been on both ends of this spectrum… I have stayed silent when REAL abuse was happening. And, weirdly, since I was raped, I have spoken out publicly, ‘exposed’ as it were, people who didn’t actually do anything abusive, but who treated women inappropriately. (I’ve deleted all posts since) I have also spoken publicly about being raped… but the man is still walking free, hidden. It’s like I have this new anger about injustices against women. Yes, everything I posted was true. But does it matter? It’s not really them that I am mad at. I mean, at the time, maybe I rolled my eyes, or said ‘what are you doing?’ or just passed it off. It’s only after I was raped these things bothered me (most happened before I was raped), and I don’t think I ever thought of any of those …