Friday, September 10, 2010
AN OPEN LETTER
"I work with men and boys who place value and credibility on beating women. The work is difficult on many levels. Defining obstacles for their mentality is the inability to hear a woman's story,their fear of unlearning and re-examining their creation stories. One of the local women I have worked with here in DC is a powerful woman who tells her story. She lives with AIDS. She was a prostitute. Her story is brutal and hard. We have hired her to speak with our youth. Her input is powerful as bulldozers. After one of her seesions I asked about her program directed at johns arrested for solicitation. I wanted to know details. I asked how long the program for women leaving the world of prostitution remained in her program and how long the men's time with her was. Not surprising the women's time was about a year. The men could only endure a day. This means something. I encourage you to tell your story for the same reasons you got the hell away from your abusive man: survival and growth...." ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories (January 2007)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is something that has been going for centuries. Prostitutes allow the men to hit for being afraid that they will leave with nothing and no where to go.
ReplyDeleteBut lets us turn this coin around, housewifes also get beaten every day, there are many countries that allow men to beat their woman and even kill them and nothing happens to them.
This is a story I can relate to because in my first marrige my husband just to hit for just anything, I spoke out of place (so he said) or just he wanted to leave at night and by hitting, what could I say.
I got out of that relationship as soon as I could. The marriage lasted less than 2 years and I still that was too much. I packed my clothes my first baby and left and never look back.
My thing was that my mother told me that after you get married you are suppose to stay married. Well one day after I left, that she had told me lies and no one in this world should be hit. Well, she had to live with that.
I carried myself to another state and here I have been since that happened. But men treat women as if we did not have them no one else would want us, I say BULL to that, that is them playing with mentally. So if a woman tells me a man hits her I tell her to get out. After the fact I found out that there are places were women can get assistance untill they get on their feet. My situation was a bit different because I was educated and I found my career was ready to hire.
The fact that prostitutes stay is almost the same reason, because if they want to get, they can, You just have to be strong. Every is strong, just pull it from your inside out and you will find it.
Great words Gregory. Blessed be..Bori.
Bori, your story troubles me deeply. I appreciate how hard it must be to tell this to people, but it must be told. So many women doubt themselves, and somehow are unable to leave those relationships.
ReplyDeleteYou said "everyone is strong, just pull it from your inside out and you will find it."
I believe you are of the few women, I personally know, with that kind of spirit.