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No Pity. No Shame. No Silence. (posted 16 August 2004)
If you don’t read feministe, you really should. Here’s one reason why:
Last week I came across this at MetaFilter:
I wondered for a moment what it would look like if just for one day, everyone who had survived sexual violence were visible as a survivor, if we could actually see the extent of it, if we could all know just how very not-alone we are. I wondered how angry and sad it would make me to know. I wondered how much power there might be in the truth.
She ends her post with:
I’m Hanne. I’m a survivor of sexual violence.
No Pity. No Shame. No Silence.
Both the LiveJournal post and the MetaFilter post have a long string of comments — some heart-breaking, some infuriating. In fact, misia, the original poster, had to shut down comments after receiving nearly one thousand of them during the first twenty-four hours after her post.
This post seems to have incited a movement of sorts, at least within the LiveJournal universe; people are making buttons and banners; people are coming out of the survivor closet.
— SB, at feministe, 2004-08-15
I have nothing to add. This is far more important, and far more powerful, than anything I could say. Go read. Now.
SamHaque replied:
Blame the Media. The press has been particularly egregious in their obliviousness towards victims of sexual violence with their continued coverage of an incident between a basketball player and one of his many female acquaintences.
SamHaque replied:
While I recognize that this is a problem in the America, it is tame compared to what goes on in Islamic states.
The serial killing exhibited Hussein’s sons is actually quite common with Islamic political figures. It just isn’t polite to talk about.