I won’t keep quiet about harassment of women, you do not either.
While Hollywood is shaken up by one of the
biggest scandals in the history of film industry with the main actors Harvey Weinstein
and Dustin Hoffman, my blog in-box is shaken up by the genitals of an unknown
man.
Category of message requests I avoid in a
big circle and do not open it because every time I eagerly wanted to check if
any massages were from the people who read my blog I found a few ridiculous,
mildly disgusting messages from guys who sends disgusting messages to unknown girls
and women.
For example:
“Hey sexy…”
“Hello babe, you are very sexy….”
“Wanna meet up? Netflix and chill?....” – these
are a censured versions of a few I have gotten in a past few weeks.
First of all, I wonder how many percentages
of women every day receive such messages, which are, to put it mildly, mentally
raped, and how many of them do not talk at all with anyone about them.
Another thing that came to my mind was how
many women would photograph their intimate parts of the body and send them to
unknown men, under the assumption the man wants to see it?
Unfortunately, a few often really want and
think that the situation is the same in both cases.
I opened the message in the inbox at three in
the morning when I did not know who I was and where I was except for the damn
neighbor's dog deciding it would be cool to wake up the whole neighborhood with
his barking. (In my defense I adore dogs, but this one got on my nerves a lot that
week). He partly woke me up, and I, as an addict, have to know what is
happening and to get a little out of the social networks I took my cellphone to
check the notifications. In the dark, half asleep, without my glasses I had
what to see. I was astonished, I managed to block the respective users and
wondered if I could ever fall asleep while in front of my eyes hanged that unwanted
photos!
I felt shocked, terrified and embarrassed!
Shock can be explained rationally, but
embarrassment is a sensation that sexual manias and predators successfully pass
on to their victims.
I felt that I was guilty because my social
network profile exists at all, because I'm doing a job that allows anyone to
contact me at any time, even to mentally rape me.
What is this society for us women in which
we are educated and learned that we must feel embarrassed while men, who think
they have unlimited power and freedom, can directly or indirectly abuse us?
What kind of society are we in which men
are punished for abuse of women only when the public finds out because it
became known and it got out, not because a woman was beaten or raped?
Unsolicited dick pics is a phenomenon that
in a couple of words explains the unwanted sending of genitals on social
networks to women who have not ask for it, and such behavior is considered
sexual harassment.
What motivates men at all for such heinous
ventures?
Women should be completely free to speak
and write about sexuality without that being perceived as initiating a call for
sex or serve as an excuse for sexual harassment.
I refuse to accept the fact that some men
are excited by women's fear, disbelief and shock, but in detail reading every
segment of the Hollywood scandal I realize that such individuals are everywhere
around us, mostly in good positions.
Such "guys" whose sexual harassment
triggers excitement are hidden behind capital, network, power, and screen.
This is nothing new for my country either. We have witnessed one such scandal and tragedy
few weeks ago where the victim was even abused by the media.
"Will the same fate meet me as well?“
thought my uncertain I.
Certain I said: “You do not gave a f**k
about it. “
But it is also possible that this will get out of
context because a woman has to watch what she writes, speaks and how she behaves, because if it gets out of
context, she ends up under the denomination "bitch herself asked for
it".
Public discussion about sexual or any other
abuse should start with us women who will speak up without delay what happen to
us, our friends, sisters, work colleagues ... We need to stand together in the
fight against systematic discrimination!
In a society that is pointing a finger at the
victims of the worst move is to act according to the principle that a woman is
to a woman – a man.
Sending provocative, more specifically
heinous photos does not end with the affair between the one who sends the
message and the person who reads it. Sending these photos has nothing to do
with sex, it's about power. Feeling of power for the individual who has forced
you to something you do not want. This shift act is the same as the so-called
catcalling.
Men do not do this because they can (we can
women can howl too after handsome guys that walk pass us on the street!) But
because society decided it was all right to do so.
By moving the boundaries for every person
who is a potential abuser, they are testing the social climate to which bounder
they may and should go while curing their own sexual frustrations - today they
are sending explicit photographs, tomorrow rape.
For this reason, victims and other women
must find strength in themselves to get rid of the fear of criticisms and
finger-pointing, by informing men that it is a common struggle for the right to
have the freedom of choice.
* If
you do not want to remain silent about violence against women, share this text
on social media.
**The pictures were taken on google image's, when a do a photo shoot for it this week I will replace them with my own :) .
Hi! I read your post and as a man I can't image how hard this is for you, dealing with this kind of behavior so often. I support you and thank you for writing this. I am the founder of Landesy, you submitted this link and I shared your post on our Twitter account. Great post.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing and thank you for the kind words. Don't get me wrong I do believe there are more good men in the world then there are bad ones.
DeleteTotally agree, a lot of people may think that this would be imposible to stop because anyone can hide behind a computer and attack you. But I think different, with the power of social media and internet you can be heard by a lot of people. Cheers!
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