Medusa was born to cthonic deities as a mortal who found life as a virgin priestess in Athena's Parthenon. She was a beauty, with gorgeous blond curls, and many would-be suitors. Medusa remained in Athena's cult, though, loyal to her goddess. One unfortunate day, Posiedon raped Medusa in the Parthenon. Athena became outraged, turning Medusa from a beautiful woman into the monstrous gorgon we know. What does this have to do with a 21st century girl? Everything. I endured the same crime as Medusa. I have been transformed from an innocent into something monstrous. I have lived with the shame, fear, intrusive memories, nightmares, and anxiety of post-rape trauma for 12 years. I feel like I have been turned into a monster, just like Medusa. In an effort to continue my journey of healing, recovery, and to hopefully turn my tragedy into something good (like the birth of Pegasus from Medusa's severed body), I'm speaking up. I'm making noise. I can raise awareness. I will advocate for tougher offender laws and on behalf of others afraid or ashamed to speak out.
Sadly, 1 in 6 women will be the victim of an attempted or completed sexual assault; 1 in 33 men will be the vicgtim of an attempted or completed sexual assault. 17.6% of American women have been sexually assaulted. I obtained my facts from http://www.rainn.org/, an incredibly wonderful organization created by Tori Amos, and http://www.vday.org/, created by Eve Ensler who wrote The Vagina Monologues and created V-Day, an international day of fighting sexual crimes of all types against women. It's well beyond the time to end this senselessness. There is no reason for any person to sexually assault any other individual, ever. There is never an excuse for rape, sexual abuse, incest, female genital mutilation, domestic violence, stalking, etc.
As part of embracing this Medusa persona, I am saying, yes, I was raped. I have been stalked, sexually harassed, and otherwise assaulted in a sexual manner. I have reported certain incidents, only to be told nothing could be done because of the "he said/she said" paradox, despite the fact I could provide witnesses. This particular incident was in junior high school. A girl should not be taught to accept any sort of sexual victimization just because.
To be clear, Medusa is not advocating hatred of men. Medusa loves men. Medusa is married to a wonderful man who is extremely supportive and loving. Men are victims of sexual predators, too, and my goal is to advocate for everyone. Medusa's primary purpose is advocacy of sexual assault survivors; however, Medusa also enjoys a wicked sense of humor and will use this blog as an opportunity to make observations that otherwise would only live in Medusa's mind-tank. Please read, enjoy, comment, ask questions, disagree, or whatever. Medusa is here, and she is not backing down.
