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INTERRUPTING VICTIMOLOGY

My voice has finally been amplified in this day and age. It feels refreshing to see movements like the #MeToo sweeping across the globe. I recognize and applaud(very loudly) the women who have chosen to speak up especially in Hollywood where reputation is everything. I am with these women in spirit and in soul. Their stories have worked to introduce into conversation the injustice that is rape .I am late in commenting, because i am practiced in the art of patience, in this matter at least. But I have read only a handful of articles and statements by the perpetrators in question. Their comments and words have been kept to the minimum even to the public. Some of the suspects still work in the business and are protected by brand names and law suits on top of the other.

 This is a clear glass through the context of my society. The African society has commented ever so lightly on the issue. There has been only whispers on it, no matter how fast we retweet or how loud we speak out, about the condemnation of those who rape our vulnerable. Instead, there is a curfew for our children to be back home, there is a warning to not let strangers into our homes, there is an acceptable dress code to not attract these monsters and there is self defense class in case you were finally caught up with. Minimal effort is applied in shaming the act, even the thought of sexual assault, just more therapy sessions for the handful of victims the society chooses to really see.

I believe that until the subject of sexual predators is touched, we will continuously breed a scared, paranoid and petrified generation after the other. We keep on making room for them to grow where we live, where we pray on bended knee, even in our hospitals. We keep nurturing victims, down to the scream-run-fight drill instead of cutting off the dynamics of power that drive these predators. We are quicker to offer a shoulder to cry on rather than wag a warning finger at those that empower such perversion in our communities. I refuse to stay in the #Metoo movement. I choose instead to pass through it, patiently, and modify my language to discourage the use of position and power for sexual predation. It might have been me the victim, but it was him the victimizer.

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