#metoo

Exactly three years ago this week Anne Coulter made a statement about campus rape stating that “women who say they are raped are just trying to get attention.” She further elaborated on this paradoxical statement by stating, “what crime do people keep to themselves” because if they do, a real crime obviously didn’t occur. She continued on to state that the rape epidemic is exaggerated and she didn’t even know anyone who had been raped.

At the time I was incensed. I had never told anyone about being raped in college and I imagined that I was pretty typical. I wrote a letter to the editor of a local news rag about WHY women don’t talk about such things. The editor (whom I knew well) very nicely said that these things were not “nice” and we shouldn’t talk about them. Needless to say, he declined to publish my letter.

Fast forward three years later and that same story is in front of you. It is still not nice at all. It is still graphic and sad and hurtful.

But it still happened…

And it turns out that it happened to so very many of us, and it turns out that sometimes we need to talk about not nice things in order to make them stop. I thank the brave and wonderful editors at THE REFRESH for being willing to allow that conversation. I thank the brave and wonderful people who have told their #metoo stories.

I don’t want to make you sad/mad/cry and if you think reading about this will, then by all means please hit delete and/or wait till you feel like you want a good rage.

And if you need to, I’m here to listen or for a really big hug.

#metoo

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