Mom, if I don’t come home tonight, don’t let my voice go out, don’t let them distract the world with my way of dressing or the way I walk, say that if I was nice to this guy who came to talk to me, it was just out of courtesy, not because I wanted to hit him.
However, if I was rude it was because I wanted to be with my friends and that’s it, not because I want to provoke, because Mom, if I don’t come home tonight it’s because a man raped me and I became another victim.
- Tell people who I really am.
- Don’t let my voice come out.
- Drowned out by what the press or those who don’t know me mean.
- What they say about me in town.
- The bad reputation that haunts me.
- Is because I lived the way I wanted to.
- No.
- No matter what they say.
- Because I own my life and I’m not a prisoner of what other people want.
Women are judged with every step they take. Because they’re girls, they have to meet certain expectations. If they ignore them, they’re “bad girls, ” whores, who deserve what happened.
Mom, say it loud and clear, until I run out of voice, that I’ve just tried to live my freedom, that they finally understand that no matter how many sex I’ve had, what matters is whether my abuser sees women as objects.
Make it clear that the way I dress is for me, if you sexualize it because it’s hot and my summer clothes look more than winter clothes, it’s more your problem than mine, think about it, it’s just an outfit. Think again: men can walk shirtless and in low pants, showing off their underwear and no woman tries to rape them.
“Our bodies are our first battlefield. ” -Barbara Kruger-
Talk about the pressure and complexities to which we are subjected by society. Become the voice of all women, showing everything we live. Tell us how they touched us without accepting and, showing our position, how they insult us and how violent our aggressors are. are.
As a woman, I’m afraid to defend myself from sexual assault because I’m more likely to be killed, but if I don’t defend myself, it will be my word against the word of others.
Talk about the fear I felt when I came back alone at night after walking. Let everyone know I was afraid of this fear, not my brother. Because I’m a woman, because of my gender, I’ve always been in greater danger.
Tell me how much I have the keys before I get to the front of the house. I do this to have a way to defend myself if someone attacks me along the way. Explain that women always look over their shoulders when walking alone or anywhere, day or night.
“On the way back, I want to be free, not brave. “
Mom, above all, don’t feel guilty if I didn’t get home today, because there was nothing you could do, you raised me to live the way I wanted, without complexes, you warned me of everything that could happen and you made it clear to me that if that was the case, I couldn’t help it. And now I’m telling you, you can’t either. I’m a victim of being a woman and it’s something I can’t change.
Because Mom, in this sexist society, I’m the victim, another raped woman, but I’m the one who gets the toughest judgments from people, because it’s hard for the world to understand that they rape without us provocating this behavior. They raped because patriarchy told them that we are difficult, that we must insist, that we like to sing and any attitude, even if we do not ask.
Because knowing that every man can be a rapist and any woman a victim is hard to understand, but Mom, people will only understand if you say everything I’ve told you and make the voices of all women heard. There is no other cause of rape than education that sexualizes women. And there’s no other victim than the vagina. So Mom, don’t let my voice shut up, but don’t let yours get corrected either. You know me and you know what we do. Make your voice heard and become an anthem.