Rebecca Clayson

Rebecca Clayson
Studio Art, senior

Enough is Enough

This is a picture of my own body, with a text bubble stating “Show me your tits.” There have been times I and many other women have received such messages whether through DMs, text messages, etc. These days my first thought if I were to receive a message from someone I do not know there is an underlying anxiety that the message waiting for me is inappropriate and demeaning. The sound of receiving a notification alone often makes my hands tremble as I pick up to see what it is being said. As a sexual assault survivor, I spent the last 5 years on the path for healing and most of those years trying to reclaim my body as my own. I have only just started to be comfortable in my own skin, my own body again, yet throughout those years I was continuously sexualized as my journey nor healing was known or mattered in that moment. All those eyes scrutinized the very part of me I was trying to get back. #MeToo movement spoke on the very trauma that was considered so taboo and silenced if I were to even speak out. If I may speak on it after all these years, if I am allowed to share my journey in this moment. I wish for me and those who may have experiences similar to mine not to wait another 5 years like I did to speak on what has become normalized in today’s society. I WANT to speak on it, I will be the change I wish to see. I hope for healing, for happiness, for togetherness, and new beginnings as we look towards the future.