Tuesday, March 09, 2010

All in a days work

It blows my mind, breaks my heart and frustrates my feminist soul beyond belief to hear people respond to the description of a sexual assault scenario with comments like this--

“This seems to be the norm…it’s just how it is, you know the sexual culture in 2010…The guy may have acted like a jerk that night but there didn’t seem to be anything that would indicate that he’s a rapist.”

On this particular day I want to shout, “Are you fucking kidding me?” as I violently throw my hands in the air. But instead I pause, because a) violence is not the answer and b) as good as it might feel to scream right now, an angry reaction takes my power to educate away. I say to myself, "deep breaths Kelly, deep breaths" and I can feel and almost hear Becca calming me down even though she has not spoken a word.

And once again, the conversation to help transform our culture begins. Today the discussion leaves me feeling drained. My body is worn-out and my spirit feels defeated. But no matter how tired I feel I will not give up. We will not give up. Tomorrow will be here soon enough and there is so much work to be done.

Still hopeful, determined and focused.
xox-
Kelly

No comments: