We will not go quiet. We will not look away. We will stand tall and be loud. We are here for the survivors. We are here for the victims. We are here to hold the wrongdoers accountable.
I have to applaud you for your courage. When I was around 14 I was told I wasn’t smart enough to do anything productive with my life. I felt worthless for most of my life and thought sleeping with a man would make him love me since I never got any love from my father. And my mother was so caught up in her own problems I had zero stability at home. It became a lifelong habit going from one bad relationship to another. To realize that all those times I woke up somewhere and had no clue how I got there and no memory of the previous night, even though I may have had only 1 or 2 drinks. To realize all those times I most likely was drugged. About 7 years ago I checked myself into a psychiatric hospital where I was immersed in one on one, and group therapy 7 days a week. It took that kind of intense therapy for me to realize that I had a choice and it was taken from me by a society that always treated women as being whores for what I went through.
Jacqueline, I am so sorry, and glad you were able to get the help you needed to understand it was not your fault. Too often boys are taught by men who think women are meant to service men, and they never learned how to respect a woman. Going forward we need to show our sons that women are equal to men, and size and strength does not make a man superior. Hugs.
Wow… I have walked with survivors of rape (in the military where they were also raped by the system) and your story, along with their stories, breaks my heart and pisses me off. Keep speaking the truth to power, Jo! Love and respect 💖💖
JoJo, I just upgraded too - like so many. We need your voice and your eloquent writing. My heart goes out to you as you painfully relive the crime that was perpetrated against you. I'm so sorry.
I am sickened and saddened beyond belief by what is happening in America - that orange monster joins with another monster to distort and to bury the truth. All they need to do to get names is SPEAK TO THE VICTIMS. Not the perpetrators.
These foul people are normalising depravity. A scant few years since "Me Too" and here we are, right back at the start. It's so easy to lose hope.
I'm almost 67 years old. At fourteen, I had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old boy. It has affected me most of my adult life and is, I believe, why I always chose abusers as boyfriends and husbands - until very recently. Four years ago, at the age of 62, I met a wonderful, kind, caring man. It is the first relationship I have ever had with a romantic partner, that has not included mental abuse and torture.
We shouldn't have to wait until our sixties to feel good about love. Abuse has lifelong impacts and must not be minimised.
I am so so sorry that you have had so much pain over that. But the ones who said if you just believe the girls and women we wouldn’t be here are correct. We as grown up women need to own that and support the victims and put the predators in prison.
I'm a mother of a daughter who as an adopted troubled child eventually chose a dark path and was trafficked. She and we are survivors of that victimization as well as her in utero abuse. I could not be prouder of her now 11 years liberated. She is working on a doctoral degree in occupational therapy. Here in Texas "his" "deplorable" supporters are attempting to redistrict so that there is a path to elect more cretins. Yes I can connect those dots and I will, either in writing or speaking, at a hearing about this abysmal attempt to further entench cruelty and rank disenfranchisement. Thank you for the spurring of my intentions.
I struggle to find words to express my disgust and anger about all of this. I guess I can't comprehend how someone can do these things to others. We have monsters among us. We need to throw the monsters back into Hell where they belong. We do that by relentlessly calling out this abomination. Make these bastards own this! The victims need to be heard. They deserve justice. They need help. Thank you for being a shining light at the end of a dark tunnel. Love to you and your kids. ❤️😢
I'm with you Charles. Something is missing in them, but I think maybe something opposite is missing in us. We cannot possibly understand them, because we are so turned off by such behavior. Indeed, it is beyond the pale, and almost every parent would kill someone who abused their child. Sick doesn't really cover it, such a person is mentally ill. You know, it never fails to astound me that most of the rapes of boys come from a church that shrieks their version of Christianity at us, takes away women's right to choose, yet they abuse boys. How is that okay? How often these days does a high ranking republican or church man be found guilty of child abuse of the worst kind? It seems at least several times a month? What do they tell themselves that makes it ok? Or are they just psychopathic sociopaths who (much like trump) feel the world is just there to service them?
JoJo I’m so very sorry your innocence was stolen from you. Of course you kept it to yourself. That’s what girls and women do because our society doesn’t believe or support us. E. Jean Carroll was an adult woman with a successful career and she stayed quiet for years, too filled with self blame to tell what Trump did to her in that dressing room. If an adult woman feels she was somehow to blame for something that was never her fault how is a teen girl just finding her way in the world supposed to feel? For reasons I don’t understand we’re training boys to become predators. Now we have college boys thinking it’s okay to strangle their girlfriends during willing or unwilling sex and the girls know they better endure it and stay quiet. If Trump does pardon Maxwell strictly to keep his own sexual perversions from exposure, sexual survivors everywhere get yet another slap in the face. Be extra kind to yourself JoJo if he does pardon her, as all sexual survivors will need to do. Sexual violation steals girl’s innocence and leaves a permanent mark on their souls. It never totally goes away. That is the biggest tragedy of all.
Jo…. Dear Jo, your words make me feel you and all of your pain. I love you more today than yesterday thank you for your bravery, your struggle for peace and justice…. Whatever that means.
You are SO brave and thank you for your candour and fight.
We remember too that Virginia Giuffre, lost her life only 6 weeks ago, BECAUSE IMO, of these sexual abusing monsters. She was a mum. A fighter.
How can America be SO blind to these animals covering their tracks. Well done Jo. You are inspiring
❤️🏴
Exactly. You said it, what you said was great, but is it ever enough? The depravity of these people, this regime. Three and a half more years!
We will not go quiet. We will not look away. We will stand tall and be loud. We are here for the survivors. We are here for the victims. We are here to hold the wrongdoers accountable.
The only appropriate thing to add is AMEN!!!! Can I get a chorus to back up Sister Jo!
Amen!
Amen!
Amen.
And we love you right back, Jo.
I have to applaud you for your courage. When I was around 14 I was told I wasn’t smart enough to do anything productive with my life. I felt worthless for most of my life and thought sleeping with a man would make him love me since I never got any love from my father. And my mother was so caught up in her own problems I had zero stability at home. It became a lifelong habit going from one bad relationship to another. To realize that all those times I woke up somewhere and had no clue how I got there and no memory of the previous night, even though I may have had only 1 or 2 drinks. To realize all those times I most likely was drugged. About 7 years ago I checked myself into a psychiatric hospital where I was immersed in one on one, and group therapy 7 days a week. It took that kind of intense therapy for me to realize that I had a choice and it was taken from me by a society that always treated women as being whores for what I went through.
Dear God in heaven!. And look how clear thinking and well written you now are. Many thanks for sharing the pain. May you continue to heal.
Jacqueline, I am so sorry, and glad you were able to get the help you needed to understand it was not your fault. Too often boys are taught by men who think women are meant to service men, and they never learned how to respect a woman. Going forward we need to show our sons that women are equal to men, and size and strength does not make a man superior. Hugs.
Wow… I have walked with survivors of rape (in the military where they were also raped by the system) and your story, along with their stories, breaks my heart and pisses me off. Keep speaking the truth to power, Jo! Love and respect 💖💖
Thank you for your openness. That had to have been very difficult.
JoJo, I just upgraded too - like so many. We need your voice and your eloquent writing. My heart goes out to you as you painfully relive the crime that was perpetrated against you. I'm so sorry.
I am sickened and saddened beyond belief by what is happening in America - that orange monster joins with another monster to distort and to bury the truth. All they need to do to get names is SPEAK TO THE VICTIMS. Not the perpetrators.
These foul people are normalising depravity. A scant few years since "Me Too" and here we are, right back at the start. It's so easy to lose hope.
I'm almost 67 years old. At fourteen, I had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old boy. It has affected me most of my adult life and is, I believe, why I always chose abusers as boyfriends and husbands - until very recently. Four years ago, at the age of 62, I met a wonderful, kind, caring man. It is the first relationship I have ever had with a romantic partner, that has not included mental abuse and torture.
We shouldn't have to wait until our sixties to feel good about love. Abuse has lifelong impacts and must not be minimised.
Sending you hugs from New Zealand.
I am so so sorry that you have had so much pain over that. But the ones who said if you just believe the girls and women we wouldn’t be here are correct. We as grown up women need to own that and support the victims and put the predators in prison.
And I thought your last essay was powerful. Wow. You're going from strength to strength.
Hear! Hear! Keep ’em coming, Jo!
I'm a mother of a daughter who as an adopted troubled child eventually chose a dark path and was trafficked. She and we are survivors of that victimization as well as her in utero abuse. I could not be prouder of her now 11 years liberated. She is working on a doctoral degree in occupational therapy. Here in Texas "his" "deplorable" supporters are attempting to redistrict so that there is a path to elect more cretins. Yes I can connect those dots and I will, either in writing or speaking, at a hearing about this abysmal attempt to further entench cruelty and rank disenfranchisement. Thank you for the spurring of my intentions.
Thank you Dee!
God bless you and your family. 💙
Jo - you are a brilliant light in the darkness - to see you now no one would suspect the pain that you’ve been through -
but you are so strong (jersey strong😉) and your voice matters to younger girls - you have a heart of gold!
I struggle to find words to express my disgust and anger about all of this. I guess I can't comprehend how someone can do these things to others. We have monsters among us. We need to throw the monsters back into Hell where they belong. We do that by relentlessly calling out this abomination. Make these bastards own this! The victims need to be heard. They deserve justice. They need help. Thank you for being a shining light at the end of a dark tunnel. Love to you and your kids. ❤️😢
I'm with you Charles. Something is missing in them, but I think maybe something opposite is missing in us. We cannot possibly understand them, because we are so turned off by such behavior. Indeed, it is beyond the pale, and almost every parent would kill someone who abused their child. Sick doesn't really cover it, such a person is mentally ill. You know, it never fails to astound me that most of the rapes of boys come from a church that shrieks their version of Christianity at us, takes away women's right to choose, yet they abuse boys. How is that okay? How often these days does a high ranking republican or church man be found guilty of child abuse of the worst kind? It seems at least several times a month? What do they tell themselves that makes it ok? Or are they just psychopathic sociopaths who (much like trump) feel the world is just there to service them?
Amen, my friend. Amen.
JoJo I’m so very sorry your innocence was stolen from you. Of course you kept it to yourself. That’s what girls and women do because our society doesn’t believe or support us. E. Jean Carroll was an adult woman with a successful career and she stayed quiet for years, too filled with self blame to tell what Trump did to her in that dressing room. If an adult woman feels she was somehow to blame for something that was never her fault how is a teen girl just finding her way in the world supposed to feel? For reasons I don’t understand we’re training boys to become predators. Now we have college boys thinking it’s okay to strangle their girlfriends during willing or unwilling sex and the girls know they better endure it and stay quiet. If Trump does pardon Maxwell strictly to keep his own sexual perversions from exposure, sexual survivors everywhere get yet another slap in the face. Be extra kind to yourself JoJo if he does pardon her, as all sexual survivors will need to do. Sexual violation steals girl’s innocence and leaves a permanent mark on their souls. It never totally goes away. That is the biggest tragedy of all.
Thank you Jo. We will not surrender. 💙
Jo…. Dear Jo, your words make me feel you and all of your pain. I love you more today than yesterday thank you for your bravery, your struggle for peace and justice…. Whatever that means.
Ashley