A Young Woman Shares her View on #MeToo

Luminnesse Lee

Luminnesse Lee

“What really intrigued me about that campaign was how many women jumped on board with it. Right when I heard about it, I thought it was pretty crazy. This is something that’s never, ever been done before—women talking about being sexually abused. So I looked it up and basically she tweeted #metoo if you have ever been sexually assaulted or abused. And 60,000 women within two hours had responded to that saying #metoo. And I’m sure it’s skyrocketed even more now. That was just so incredible to me— the severity of this, of sexual abuse, of abuse inflicted upon women. And I feel having that space to openly share what has happened to you, especially as a woman, that we have such a need to vocalize and share about the abuse, about the experience, about what we felt.

I think the amazing thing about this campaign is how it opened up the ground, to soften the ground, for women to come forward and share in detail what they experienced. And not only focusing on the darkness and the negative aspect of it, but also sharing how they’d grown. Because they’re survivors. It’s a miracle that all of these women are still here. Because I’ve experienced sexual abuse. I’ve never been raped which I can’t even imagine, but even having sexual abuse was like very traumatizing. I can see why a woman would feel shattered and like the world would be better off without her, and I don’t know the statistic, but why so many women commit suicide after being raped. It’s like a common thing that happens.

I think men need to know how we feel. Because oftentimes it’s just done and no one hears about it, it’s swept under the rug. There’s no justice, especially in colleges. I think that’s even more devastating for that to happen to you. Because it takes a lot of courage to go then tell in detail what happened, relive it, to a police officer, or to someone who’s questioning you, and then to have them not do anything about that.”