Edward Russell
t first I wasn’t sure whether to watch this video. Not because I couldn’t be bothered or didn’t think it mattered, but because I was scared of how I would feel. Being a feminist, a lot of things anger me and make me feel this incredible rage which can spark a lot of arguments and make me look a little crazy. But I made myself watch it. It was everything it should be. It was powerful, poignant, confronting and real. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it. I sat staring at my screen, unaware of anything else around me, tears silently sliding down my face. I literally felt my heart breaking. It just broke right there and then, for all of the victims of these kinds of atrocities. For all of the people who feel that they are somehow worthless after the occurrence, or who are too afraid to speak up for fear of seeming dramatic or not being believed. Now this hasn’t personally happened to me, but I’ve had a few encounters where I felt as if it could. I don’t want to admit it, but I do live in fear of this happening, of not being able to stop it, of how I would react. I want to say that I would scream and fight and get away. But this is not always the case.
People praise those women who do fight, who do manage to get away. But in doing this, they are somehow demeaning those women who couldn’t or wouldn’t. And that is not the point. The point should not be how women react or what they do or don’t do to prevent it. The focus should be on the perpetrator and how to stop it at the source. People say that women should carry rape whistles or not go out alone at certain times of day. But this video shows it happening in a completely everyday context which makes it all the more important and makes these arguments irrelevant.
I implore you to watch this video. Our society needs it. Yes, it may be too hard to see, or too confrontational, but trust me, you need to watch it, if not for you, then for those people who are too afraid to speak up. For those people who do live in fear of it happening. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the song also go towards organisations helping the victims of sexual assault, so please spread the word.
Just watch it. Trust me.
