This article first appeared on the Huffington Post.
Post Oscar Pistorius, Bill Cosby, Jian Ghomeshi, Ray Rice, Semyon Varlamov, Brandon Underwood, Massimo Pacetti, Scott Andrews. What do all these men have in common apart from their power, their influence or their celebrity status? They are all accused (in a court of law or in the court of public opinion) of abusing women.
When I was in school if a girl cried "rape", she was forever labelled a slut. I remember upon entering grade 10 a girl was pressing charges against a boy for rape. He was a popular athlete in our school at the time. I remember how terribly she was slandered and slut shamed, by practically everyone. It seemed as though no one was on her side. It seemed even the police were making her out to be a slut. It was her fault she got raped.
So the rest of us kept our mouths shut. We did not want to be in her shoes and we did not know how to support her.
This past week, women and girls have been speaking out in the millions about sexual violence and harassment. Gaining courage from one another, we have poured into the digital streets, linking arms and saying, “Me too.” It’s like our own Arab Spring. As our latest SHE editorial says: “It’s a question of freedom.”
Are women and girls in Canada really free? This question popped into my head after reading the wonderful quote: “‘Freedom from fear’ could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights.” (Download a poster here!)
This article first appeared on the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault blog and is re-published with the author's permission.
When I came to the human trafficking field from working on domestic and sexual violence, I was shocked by a lot of things. It was disturbing to learn about the various ways traffickers abuse and exploit victims for labor and sex and surprising to see how frequently human trafficking intersected directly with intimate partner violence, sex assault and child abuse.
Winner of:
Toll Free: 1-866-293-4483
National Office: 1920 Yonge St., Suite 302, Toronto, Ontario M4S 3E2
© Canadian Women’s Foundation
Registered Charity #12985-5607-RR0001
Site designed by Design de Plume Inc.
