I Hear You and Support You #MeToo
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Feb 14 2018
For weeks, but what feels like months and years, we at BookEnds have watched and discussed the #MeToo movement and read the stories of victims and abusers in the publishing industry. I know that I have felt a wide range of emotions. I feel great heartache and dismay for anyone who has been abused or harassed. I feel relief that finally, finally, victims are feeling heard and believed and that one day this sort of abuse might be, at the very least, a rarity and not the norm, and I feel a need to stand up and support all of those who have spoken, those who are thinking of speaking out, and those who might never speak, but still need support.
I have a public platform and I have stayed silent on this issue for too long.
I believe the victims of harassment and abuse, I hear you, and I support you. I will not tolerate abuse or harassment. I won’t work with or hire, enable, or empower abusers and I will do whatever I can to defend and support those who need it.
I was reading a news article just this morning, about how banks are empowering the abuser in cases with joint accounts. Many women end up with huge debts and poor credit ratings, because they can’t separate from a joint account. Or they are forced to attend the bank with their abuser.
I was in a situation where an ex tried to get me into a lot of financial trouble because of a joint account when I was 19.
Luckily I got a really good bank assistance who fixed everything for me. It was a frightening situation, you have absolutely no control over.
I hadn’t been in an abusive relationship, I can’t imagine having to face a bank who doesn’t want to help, after the enormous courage it takes to break free from an abusage relationship.
Having worked in male dominated fields most of my life, I’ve been at the receiving end of what the #metoo movement represents. I hope one day everyone, regardless of gender, skin colour, God they worship, food they eat or clothes they wear will be able to accept one another as equals in every way and treat one another with respect and courtesy. That’s the world I want my two Barbarians to grow up and live in.
My oldest two went on a different high school to the younger ones. They are some what open and mostly accepting, in every area I’ve battered it through moody teenage brains.
The younger ones went (little one is still there) to a school with awards with for their GBLTQ acceptance, both by students and staff. The boys still talk about the day Gandelf told the deputy head off and spent the entire day in school so he could meet every child.
Mid boy just accepts people and doesn’t care about their life ‘choices’, he moved tot that school at 14.
The youngest started there at 11 and he doesn’t see any one person different from any one else. If they are part of the autistic centre, they have physical disabilities, or what their sexual choices are or the colour of their skin.
A person is a person is a person, the difference is their names and only because that’s useful.
Kids are the future, and they are the ones who are going to change the future. If we don’t give them the skills and knowledge to do so, how can we improve the world for them.