I drew this after a series of comments I recieved (1, 2, 3) accusing me of reading too much into the pedophilic nature of bikini cut panties and swim bottoms. I was told I was delusional and insane. These accusations were not new to me, because as CSA victim, I have always been accused of seeing pedophilia in places where it doesn't exist.
When I was 12, ten years after my molestation, I began grappling with the juxtaposition of my childhood clothes against my aging, pubescent body. I began talking about the feeling expressed in this comic out loud, and I was told to transition. I was told that normal girls aren't bothered by sexual objectification. And I believed it.
It took radical feminism; its literature, its activists, and its collection of fans on tumblr, for me to finally understand what happened to me as a kid. Radical feminism gave me a space to heal, and "radblr" was no small part of that. And I am so grateful that I found a place where I could be safe; where I could be seen and heard and understood. I desperately needed feminism and this website delivered me to it. The women on here helped change my life.
But I'm an adult now and my vision has changed. This community that I'm so attached to is not a safe place. It's full of racists, xenophobes, rape apologists & denialists & victim blamers, ableists and antisemites and islamophobes. It is a community full of women who see only what they want to see, and cover up the rest. It's a community of women who ignore the evidence of their eyes and ears. Evidence that victims of all these issues have so meticulously documented. It's a community of willful ignorance and malicious cyberbullying.
I drew the molested child with no mouth because for most of my life, I've had no voice to verbalize my pain as a CSA victim, a rape victim, and a domestic violence victim. Radical feminism gave me my voice-- the same voice that all victims of violence cry out with-- the voice that demands a permanent ceasefire & widespread change to the structure of our violent, hateful society. But i find it increasingly grating that the women on here, who have adopted a feminist name and face, have no interest in hearing that voice.
I hope that this comic will reach who it needs to reach. And if my voice may compel you to do anything, it's to stop being complicit. Stop ignoring the suffering of women you can't relate to. Stop writing us off as crazy and over-emotional. Stop and listen to us.
Listen to victims of male violence and rape. Listen to victims of the hijab. Listen to the victims of hate crimes, especially Jewish and other politically unpopular victims. Listen to the victims of police brutality. Listen to the victims of imperialism, listen to the victims of war, listen to the victims of poverty and homelessness. Listen to the victims of lesbophobia. Listen to detransitioners. Listen to addicts, listen to victims of psychiatric abuse, listen to prostitutes, listen to victims of the incarceral state, just listen to women. Listen, and hear us.
Do not let the men who would have us all raped and dead drown us out. Do not let the women who aid and abet those men convince you that our fear is misplaced. We deserve better.
2087
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