I came across “Project Unbreakable” when it started in October 2011. it is a simple and powerful project, where survivors of sexual assault hold a poster with a quote from their attacker (and/or reactions from family/friends/judicial system). *Trigger warning for sexual assault, child abuse, secondary trauma*
The founder of the project, Grace Brown, had to hire interns to handle the volume of survivors coming forward with stories across the United States. The fact that “Project Unbreakable” has taken off is both a testament to the strength of survivors and evidence of the pervasiveness of sexual violence.
We need to challenge how shockingly commonplace sexual domination is in our culture.
We need to stop excusing domination, aggression, and sexual entitlement as just part of “boys being boys”.
We need to celebrate boys and men who respect women and go against the grain of “traditional” masculinity.
We need to hear these survivor stories and make them louder and more powerful than the victim-blaming narratives, which persistently shame victims into isolated silence and encourage perpetrators to carry on without consequence.It’s actually really astonishing how people react when you confide in them about being sexually abused. You think the person you’d be able to confide in, the person who should have helped you, would do just that and help you. But instead they shove it under the rug and try to take care of the situation themselves. Then you’re told that your worries are silly and you shouldn’t feel this way. People have it worse than you have had it, you’ve got a pretty good life. Then it’s, like, never supposed to be brought up again, like it’s this dirty secret and you’re afraid telling anyone else would get said people in huge trouble and you are just waiting for things to get better but you’re just a ball of nerves and resentment now.