In recent days, hundreds of thousands of men and women have taken a stand with two words. The #me too campaign has offered victims a voice and a community. For some, it has been a safe way to say out loud for the first time, that something terrible happened to them. In doing so, they discovered that they do not have to be alone as they face it, name it, and figure out a new way to incorporate the experience into their view of the world. Many who signed on did so after bravely opening a door they thought they'd closed.
Yesterday I heard a report that there is a hierarchy of assault and abuse evolving. Comparisons can be human nature and certainly the law does label one offense worse than another, but does the inappropriate fondling I experienced repeatedly as a child need to be ranked against sex for a promotion in this cyberspace forum? I hope not. We are just linking hands here and it is hard, so we need to be together on this. We are all reliving or remembering the anger, confusion, pain, and, regrettably, some shame that tends to accompany each incidence. All those are common threads in whatever happened to us, as is, unfortunately, the fact that we've kept part of it, if not the whole thing, a secret.
Words have power. Taunts, insults, threats, verbal abuse and harassment, they cut, not flesh, but spirit. The scars they leave on the heart echo over decades. Victims have found solace in the past in journals and diaries, putting pen to paper for themselves, or perhaps sharing with a trusted friend via letters, texts or emails. Let's hope that the power of #me too provides some healing, some relief, some reclaiming, and that it becomes a tool for action and change. And, let's thank those who have joined or support the campaign for their courage and encourage them to continue to use their voices to right a wrong.
Marilyn
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