Our Voices

WE have not come very far in our thought process on sexual abuse or on how survivors should deal with what they have been through. You would think as a society, as women, as men who have children and boys who have sisters that we would want to see justice for those who have been abused. Instead we find ways to make them feel that it was in someway their fault, we make excuses for their abusers. WE tell survivors that they should not speak about what happened; WE tell them that they would be ruining the life of the abuser or the family if they decided to speak out. WE tell the survivor that caring about how what happened to her is secondary to how it affects everyone else. When will women who chose to speak out about their abuse be supported? When will their abusers be punished accordingly? When will we all stop making excuses for the crimes they committed? Sexual abuse is a serious problem; that is only made more difficult by how society reacts to incidences of these crimes. How many of us would leave our children in the room with someone who has a history of being sexually abusive?