L.I.

I am thankful for being where I am now. I have come to understand that all the things I was subjected to did not happen only to me. After assessing all the damage and wounds caused by family members, institutions, the messages of how media portrays and normalizes the subjugation of women, these indirect messages had a harmful impact on how I viewed myself, the world and others. Society as a whole both indirectly and directly normalizes women’s objectification, portraying it as sexual freedom, opposed to the reality of it being a degradation of human dignity, diminishing women as a mere entity for the purpose of providing sexual pleasure for men’s sexual needs.

All this distorted my view of myself, which rendered me into being a sexual object. No one saw, no one heard, and most people just blamed and shamed me. Even after being raped and assaulted, I was made to feel like it was my fault and when I looked for help and guidance all I received was, again, blame and shame. So, what do you think happens when a wounded person seeks help from a society where they are not heard? The wounded will then self-isolate, self-blame, with anger for a world that fails to respond. The biggest failure is not just the offender who raped and assaulted an already wounded person, the biggest failure and trauma comes from the lack of an adequate and effective response from society as a whole.