The bad memories that must be spoken about.

What I am about to say here, men will disagree with the openness of the discussion. However, it’s challenging to understand why this discussion is necessary until your mom, your daughter, your sister, and other women close to you have been violated and victimized. It’s ok, however, if you disagree. I know that this is the right thing to do.

Many of us recall various bad things about our childhood, and a significant amount of us refuse to challenge them, talk about them, or even admit it ever happened. By denying it, we walk around as zombies carrying heavy mental/emotional loads of trauma that will never disappear from our memories. Those heavy weights bear down on our relationships, careers, and lived experiences. Sexual violence against women is a heavy burden carried by women in Jamaica. Our system of Justice has failed our women by allowing social and cultural attitudes which encourage discrimination and violence to persist.

I thought I didn’t walk around with baggage. I thought my every day was emotionally free until recently; I read an article about a young lady who was raped in the female bathroom of the high school I attended. Although I discovered that the news report was incorrect about the details surrounding the case were not necessarily factual, it is also a fact that an illegal sexual act was committed on a school’s compound. It was then that all the…