“The Grape”

The MeToo movement was created to provide support for survivors of sexual violence. The group began to help young minorities living in economically disadvantaged communities deal with this traumatic event. The world took greater notice to the movement about a year ago. Celebrity voices stepped up to speak against the abuse of power being used against women in the entertainment industry. MeToo has been around since 2006. According to the site since 1998 there have been 17,700,000 cases of sexual assault reported.

Earlier this year, Amy Schumer  bared her truths with Oprah when she openly talked about weight, love and physical and sexual abuse. She had long made light of the “gray-area-rape” using punchlines in her comedy skit as a way of educating people about the topic while making them laugh. Finally, admitting to her own experience. She shared her story of how her boyfriend forced himself on her while she was sleeping. The incident caused her distress, confusion and anger. She felt a need to comfort her the man she loved while silencing emotions of indignation. She dealt with the ordeal by pushing it down.

Women have been trained to think that a perpetrator of this violent act is usually a stranger that surprises you from behind in a dark alley. The fact is that it can be anyone from a husband to a friend. It can be someone you know well and trust. Which puts the incident in a gray area that can cause reasonable uncertainty. This gray area leaves a lot of room for unreliability in the true number of cases. We have to wonder how many of these incidents go unreported. Forcing a woman to accept unwanted advances by misusing power is abuse. Being victimized by a known individual is just as criminal as if it came from a stranger. Moving past the point after a woman says “No” is a violation.

There must be a collaborative effort to educate and show empathy for victims of this type of abuse and violence.  Society’s attitudes towards women need to evolve towards a place where their worth is recognized and respected. The changes are mandatory to begin a shift away from past stigmas.

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