Take Back Your Power Talk On Generation No More

Here is the link for the radio program on Generation No More, Butterfly Dreams Talk Radio & Abuse Recovery. The program is called Take Back Your Power. The question that Patricia McKnight asked on her program page is, "WHAT IF you realized how powerful you are?"

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/butterflydreamsabuserecovery/2013/04/16/generation-no-more-take-back-your-power

The show starts at 8:00 p.m. CST where I live in the U. S.

This is the program that I told you I would be on when I wrote my article about the Steubenville rape yesterday. The Steubenville rape trial and rape culture, along with other topics will be discussed tonight. In case you missed my two blog posts on the Steubenville, Ohio rape trial here are the two links to those articles.

Steubenville Rape Of The Victim @
http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2013/03/steubenville-rape-of-victim.html

Child Abuse Prevention Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month @
http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2013/04/child-abuse-prevention-month-and-sexual.html

I hope you will join us in taking back your power. Even if you aren't a survivor of incest like me, many of us today give away our power to others. Domestic violence survivors give away their power to those who verbally, physically, emotionally and mentally abuse them. Many times that we give away our power, it is because we don't know that we have choices. Sometimes we don't have the courage to make those difficult choices. Fear of the unknown is sometimes far worse than the fear of what we do know. I am not saying any of this as a judgment. I do understand what is is like to not know that you have choices. My dictator dad and passive-agressive, codependent mother never taught me about choices. I was in my early 40's before I realized that I could make a choice about something as simple as whether to stay home or to take a taxi to a 12-Step meeting because my friend that usually gave me a ride couldn't that night - such a little thing but a major ah-ha moment for me.
 Patricia

Child Abuse Prevention Month and Sexual Assault Awareness Month

The first blog post that I want to share with you today comes from the blog From Tracie. The article is "Blog Against Child Abuse - March 2013 Edition". Here is the link:

http://www.fromtracie.com/2013/03/blog-against-child-abuse-march-2013.html

Each month a survivor hosts the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. I shared three of my recent blog posts in the carnival this month. The carnival is posted around the end of each month. If you are interested in submitting articles to be included in the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, please let Tracie know. If you are interested in reading this month's submissions, go to the link that I provided above. Eight of us participated in the March issue. Feel free to leave comments on the blog articles that you read.


April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and also Sexual Assault Awareness Month. On Monday night, April 15, 2013, I will be joining my friends Patricia McKnight (Trish) and Mary Graziano on the Radio Program Butterfly Dreams Talk Radio & Abuse Recovery, Generation No More. We are the generation that says "No More" to child sexual abuse. "No More" to domestic violence. This link will take you to the radio program page for the shows that are archived.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/butterflydreamsabuserecovery/ 

Trish asked me to be on the program after I had written and she had read my recent article, "Steubenville Rape Of The Victim". Here is the link for that article if you haven't read it yet.

http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2013/03/steubenville-rape-of-victim.html

A sixteen-year-old girl was the rape victim of two high school football players after a party that they all attended. The rape culture advocates blamed the young girl because she was drinking, therefore, the boys could do with her as they pleased because they were football players, the heroes of a small Ohio town. That sentence that I just wrote disgusts me. The football players weren't put on trial for the rape, the victim was. Rape culture says the rape was her fault. She should have had more sense than to get drunk. She should have had more self-respect. She should . . . . . . . She should. . . . . .

Rape culture is wrong. Rape is the fault of the rapist, not the victim. She didn't ask to be raped. The victim didn't deserve to be raped. Stop blaming the victim and put the blame when it belongs with the attacker, the rapist.

Where is our sympathy for the victim? How would you feel if this victim was your sixteen-year-old daughter? The news reporters who talked about the trial every day fed into the rape culture too.

Ms. Foundation For Women posted on the internet and I saw it on my Facebook page where someone else had shared:

" A girl was raped and the media...

CNN says the boys were 'promising students'

abc NEWS makes excuses for the rapists

NBC NEWS laments the boys' 'promising football careers.'

USA TODAY stresses that the victim was drunk

Ms. Foundation For Women said, #RapeCulture #despicable #reporttherealnews"

I agree wholeheartedly with Ms. Foundation For Women.

What about the victim? What about her life? Don't they think her life was ruined? She was getting bullied and threatened because she came forward and revealed the rape to the police. What about her promising career? Just because you are drunk doesn't mean you want to or should get raped. How many men and women go out and get drunk every night? Does that mean they should be raped? Does it mean they are saying, "Go ahead. Rape me. I deserve it for wanting to have a little fun. I'll be your sex toy."

I will be writing more about the topic of rape culture after the show Monday night. The radio program begins at 7:00 p. m. Eastern Standard Time in the U. S. I don't have a specific link to give you right now. I will come back and post the link as soon as I get it. If, for some reason, you can't listen to the program live on Monday evening, the shows are archived at the same link that I will post later.

Before I close this post I want to post three more links for you to read or listen to. "Abuse; Give Hope for Rescue" is a recent talk that Patricia McKnight did speaking in front of the Illinois Healthcare Grant training program sponsored by Violence Prevention Center of SW Illinois. Trish shares part of her story here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tujWedUtdf0&feature=share

Trish's blog is called survivorsjustice and here is the link:

http://survivorsjustice.com


Mary's blog is called NIPPERCAT'S HOME and is found here:

http://www.nippercats.blogspot.com

I am looking forward to the program tomorrow night. I hope you will join us there. Have a glorious week, my friends.
Patricia