This is really close to home, thanks for sharing. I was also not into this hashtag but after reading your article I shared it on facebook with #metoo. I don’t want people to know what happened to me, I find it very personal, but I also want to raise awareness of the prevalence of gender abuse.
As a child I was very good friends with our housekeeper’s husband. I thought I was in love with him, even though he was a 60 year old man. He never raped me but I remember a few instances when things got physical, a kiss, a touch. The fact that he didn’t rape me and that there was hardly any physical aspect to it made me downplay the whole thing and think that it didn’t mean anything. Until I went to therapy with some serious issues and it came out that whether or not it was rape, this was abuse and a pure form of manipulation because I was an innocent child and a girl. Noone protected me and noone realised and I didn’t feel safe enough to tell anyone.
Abuse is abuse, whether it is rape or a touch or something unwanted. Or emotional. And noone should have to live this way.
This is really close to home, thanks for sharing. I was also not into this hashtag but after reading your article I shared it on facebook with #metoo. I don’t want people to know what happened to me, I find it very personal, but I also want to raise awareness of the prevalence of gender abuse.
As a child I was very good friends with our housekeeper’s husband. I thought I was in love with him, even though he was a 60 year old man. He never raped me but I remember a few instances when things got physical, a kiss, a touch. The fact that he didn’t rape me and that there was hardly any physical aspect to it made me downplay the whole thing and think that it didn’t mean anything. Until I went to therapy with some serious issues and it came out that whether or not it was rape, this was abuse and a pure form of manipulation because I was an innocent child and a girl. Noone protected me and noone realised and I didn’t feel safe enough to tell anyone.
Abuse is abuse, whether it is rape or a touch or something unwanted. Or emotional. And noone should have to live this way.