Speak
Out and Help Heal Other Survivors
In
the United States, one in every 100
children is involved in sexually
exploitive activities. Most runaways and
homeless young people are who are
surviving through participation in the
sex industry were originally fleeting
from homes where they were being
sexually abused. Thus, a vicious cycle
is created. Exploited at home, and then
on the streets.
Strangers
do not commit most sexual crimes against
under-aged individuals. Instead, it is
parents, uncles, or next-door neighbors
who molest our children. These facts
regarding child exploitation are taken
from a study titled “The Commercial
Sexual Exploitation of Children in the
U.S., Canada, and Mexico,” by Richard
J. Estes, PhD, and Neil Alan Weiner,
PhD, from the University of
Pennsylvania, Center for the Study of
Youth Policy.
The
three-year investigation, which was
commissioned by the US Government, calls
for urgent measures to be taken to
tackle the issue. It was published one
day before “9/11,” a day that has
ever since symbolized the devastation of
international terrorism. And yet we can
see from the study that terrorism is
already alive and well in the homes of
abused and exploited children.
Every
day, a child is exploited. Every day, we
tell ourselves, “It’s not that
bad,” when the reality is, childhood
sexual exploitation has become an
epidemic. As a nation, we have so
glorified sexual images that we have
almost become blind to the reality
behind the symbols. These images teach
our children to place great value and
emphasis on their sexuality.
I
know this is true. I am a sexual abuse
survivor. If I did not tell the truth
about what happened in my lifetime as a
result of my own experiences as an
exploited child, it would be as if I too
was looking the other way.
Silence
and secrecy perpetuate the crime. When
we tell our stories,
we create change that ripples around the
globe. In the process of healing from
being both an incest survivor and a
prostituted woman, I re-claim my sexual
identity when I tell the truth about how
I became split from myself. How the
wounded little girl went underground and
how I developed into the “bad girl”
to protect her.
If
no one tells the truth, the exploitation
will become the norm. Then whoever is
exploited will be blamed for what
happened to them. They were available
for the victimization, showed no
resistance, therefore they must have
wanted it, and so it’s their own
fault.
I
was blamed for my own victimization by
being labeled a bad girl.
I was defiant, and so I decided that if
society viewed me as bad, then I might
as well be a good “bad girl.” I
shoved my addiction to the sex industry
underground, and later it resurfaced as
a sex and love addiction. The only way
out of the maze is to tell you the
truth. I am lifting the veil. This is
the journey I took to become whole and
reclaim my womanhood. Please tell me
your truth. Take the hand of another
survivor and together we will
help to heal the world. |
