This 👇👇
While I am deeply sorry for what happened to Anita, Tana, and unfortunately so many other women, I also have so much faith in this generation of women who are brave enough to speak out, defend their rights, and stand together despite the consequences that too often come with speaking against powerful men.
I wish I had had that bravery too.
Too often, I heard that it was my fault. That my art was the problem. That I should have known better, stayed away, remained silent, changed my medium.
But long before my art, the teenage me had already learned what it meant to be looked at, touched, and sexualized by men. She hasn’t forgotten.
It’s not new.
It has always been there.
It’s not just our space. It’s our world.
Different stories, different circumstances, but a pattern that too many women will recognize: somehow, the responsibility so easily finds its way back to us.
This is why seeing women speak matters so much.
Women should always feel free to be, to exist as they are, without constantly calculating how their existence might be perceived by men.
They should never have to make themselves smaller, quieter, or more careful to protect themselves from someone else’s actions.