At the Womxn’s March this past Saturday there was a moment when the organizers asked participants to raise their hands if they had ever experienced sexual assault or harassment.
It was powerful to see the majority of the crowd raise their hands, demonstrating we are in this together.
Me too. #metoo
The most moving part of this small, impactful show of hands was the moment when I questioned if I too could raise my hand.
Does it count that when I was 14-years-old my unrelated “cousin” knocked me to the ground in the woods, attempting to rape me, while my body stopped obeying my commands out of fear, and my only saving grace was that it was his first attempted rape?
Does it count that I negotiated with him what parts of my body he could molest to avoid him “going down there”?
Does it count that two men, who used to eat lunch at the restaurant I worked at, asked to be seated in a far upstairs corner of the restaurant that was usually closed during the day, requesting me as their server, then proceeding to say horribly demeaning, sexually humiliating things to me every time they came in, only to have my manager say “you can handle” it when I issued a complaint?
Does it count that someone I dated for barely a week sent me an unsolicited video of himself masturbating in a bathroom stall at his place of work and I pretended to like it because I thought I should?
Does it count that I’ve been cat-called, groped, grabbed, and leered at in public?
Does it count that I’ve been told “no guy is ever going to want you if you act that way” and “guys only want one thing, so you’d better be careful not to give them the wrong idea”, sending the insidious message that my worth and subsequent behavior is directly tied to male approval?
All of this, and so much more, and I still stood in that crowd wondering if I had the “right” to raise my hand, saying #metoo.
In the days since the rally it’s dawned on me more fully how I have lived with this feeling all my life – the feeling that these things are normal, par for the course.
I believe a lot of women feel this way. I believe the only way to take back our power is to use our voices and stand together, saying Enough!
Enough. Enough. Enough.
We are valuable. We are equal. We are goddess incarnate. We are the revelation of love, beauty and compassion. We are the source of all life and healing.
May you, and all those you love, be reunited with Goddess and your divine, loving nature.
May you stand in the power of love, healing and compassion.
May you know joy, deep in your soul, and follow that joy to a new end of equality, respect and reverence for all.
Amen.
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Learn more the #MeToo Movement here.