Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Let's give thanks.

 

Let's give thanks for the fact that when we did stupid shit when we were younger, no one print screened it and then ruined our lives by sending it to our friends and family. Amanda Todd flashed a guy on webcam and someone sent the photo to her entire school, over and over again until she attempted suicide. After that, people made fun of her for being too stupid to kill herself. The second time, she succeeded.







Let's give thanks for not being gang raped and then bullied for two years, reaching a point where we didn't see any way other way out except to take our own lives. Rehtaeh Parsons was sexually assaulted at a party. It was photographed, circulated, and she suffered at the hands of her aggressors and her entire community for years until she couldn't handle it, and committed suicide.

    

Let's give thanks that when we drank too much at a party and passed out upstairs, people we considered friends didn't come into the room, undress us, sexually assault us and write all over our unconscious bodies with marker, then circulate the photos and have the whole school treat us like dirt until we committed suicide. Audrie Pott suffered through this situation and in the end, ended her own life as well. Even after her death, her aggressors considered what they had done to her as a prank, nothing more.

Let's give thanks that we are not Amanda, Rehtaeh or Audrie. But wait. How do I know that some of you aren't suffering through some version of their Hells right now? How do you know that someone you love isn't dealing with this horror as you read this? We can't.


So let's give thanks that maybe there's a chance that we can be the person who prevents someone from killing themselves. Let's give thanks that if we change our behaviour, others may do the same. Let's give thanks for having hope that rape culture may come to an end. Let's give thanks for having the capacity to care and to love and to fight inequality.

Let's give thanks.