This event was empowering and eye-opening. For many people, domestic violence and sexual assault is something that should be hidden from the public. The speakers did an incredible job with showcasing the ways in which sexual assault and harassment affect each and every one of us even those who have not personally experienced it. Some of the speakers came from dysfunctional family environments where healthy relationships weren\u2019t displayed very often. The first woman who spoke talked about her own personal experience with domestic violence. She was a marine who married another marine and she had what seemed like the perfect marriage. She grew up in a small town where things like sexual assault and domestic violence weren\u2019t talked about or acknowledged. She told us that her breaking point was when one of her kids saw her husband lay a hand on her and that that was the last straw. She asked herself who would take care of her children if something happened to her and she didn\u2019t want to put her kids through that. Another girl shared her story about having to see her abuser at school every day and how painful it was for her. I know all too well how that feels and her words helped remind me that I\u2019m not alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Throughout the event there were repeated\nmessages of acknowledging the hurt and knowing that there will never be another\none of ourselves. That we are strong and that we need to take back our power for\nourselves and never let it go. There will never be anyone like you because there\nis only one you. They also mentioned that these things take time and that going\nto therapy is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of strength. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Natalie Illum, the keynote speaker, talked\nabout her experiences with both assault and disability. She told us that one of\nher friends was assaulted too but she didn\u2019t find out until much later which is\nusually how these things go. Natalie read us original poetry that showed her\ndisbelief at how people tend to distrust victims of sexual assault. She wrote a\npoem about a poetry slam event that she went to. She wrote about 9, 10, 11 and\n12 year old\u2019s who read their original poems about their past sexual assaults. They\nwere so very young. At the end of all of this, she said that she believes us and\nthat it is time for us to own ourselves and what has happened to us. Even when\nand if perpetrators are not caught, the important thing to know is that it is not\nour fault nor was it ever our fault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This event was empowering not only\nas a woman but as a human being. It is helping us take one more step forward in\nthe effort to get rid of the stigma surrounding sexual assault and domestic\nviolence. The speakers at the event helped remind me that I am not alone in\nwhat I, and many others, have experienced. All of these speeches resonated with\nme because of not only my experience but because of the experiences of all the\nstrong women around me and the ways in which they were able to pick themselves\nup and start again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This event was empowering and eye-opening. For many people, domestic violence and sexual assault is something that should be hidden from the public. The speakers did an incredible job with showcasing the ways in which sexual assault and harassment affect each and every one of us even those who have not personally experienced it. Some … Continue reading “Sammie Meyers’ Response to Take Back the Night”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papJgd-mS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1418"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1419,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions\/1419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}