There is something that has been sitting in the back of my mind as I have watched the conversations surrounding what happened to that young woman.
I’ve watched the videos. I’ve read the comments.
She shouldn’t have gone.
She shouldn’t have trusted them.
She was drinking.
She was doing drugs.
She should have known better.
And I keep thinking…
Why are we so determined to find a reason why she should have prevented someone else from choosing to hurt her?
Yes, every one of us makes choices.
We can say, I shouldn’t have driven that night.
Maybe we wouldn’t have gotten into an accident.
We can say, I shouldn’t have gotten on that bus that morning.
Maybe something wouldn’t have happened to us.
But life does not come with a guarantee that if we make the “right” choices, nobody will ever hurt us.
Sometimes we trust the wrong person.
Sometimes we walk into a room believing we are safe.
Sometimes we believe someone is our friend.
And sometimes, someone uses that trust against us.
That is not consent.
That is not permission.
That is not an invitation.
And it does not matter whether someone has had sex before.
It does not matter how many people they have slept with.
It does not matter what they drank.
It does not matter what they put into their body.
It does not matter what they wore.
It does not matter where they went.
Their body still belongs to them.
And when someone violates that boundary, something is taken from them.
Not because virginity is some magical thing that can be stolen.
But because trust, safety, dignity, bodily autonomy and the ability to believe that another human being will not intentionally hurt you can be shattered in an instant.
I have looked into the eyes of people who have experienced violation.
Children.
Women.
Men.
People who were left trying to understand something their minds could barely process.
Why did somebody hurt me?
Why did somebody put their hands on me?
Why did somebody take advantage of me?
Why didn’t I understand what was happening?
Why did someone I trusted do this to me?
Those questions don’t disappear because somebody on the internet decides the victim “should have known better.”
And this isn’t only about women.
This is about human beings.
It is about whether we, as a society, are finally willing to say:
NO MORE.
No more sexual violence against women.
No more sexual violence against men.
No more children being abused.
No more grooming.
No more predators using friendship, trust, authority, substances, fear, age, vulnerability or manipulation to gain access to another person’s body.
No more looking at a victim and asking,
“What did you do?”
before asking,
“What did they do to you?”
And if seven people stand together while another human being is being violated, there is something profoundly wrong with every single person who chooses to participate, encourage, watch, or remain silent.
At some point, someone has to say:
This isn’t right.
Someone has to stand up.
Someone has to stop it.
Someone has to recognize that another human being is suffering.
And if nobody does?
Then we have to be willing to look honestly at what kind of society we are creating.
Because consequences matter.
Accountability matters.
Justice matters.
And the fact that someone survived what was done to them does not mean what was done was okay.
I am tired of a world where children can have their innocence stolen and people minimize it.
I am tired of women being violated and being asked what they were wearing.
I am tired of victims being questioned more aggressively than the people who harmed them.
I am tired of people confusing someone’s kindness with consent.
I am tired of people confusing someone’s intoxication with permission.
I am tired of people confusing someone’s past with permission for their present.
NO.
A person’s body is not public property.
A person’s trust is not an invitation.
A person’s past does not give you ownership of their present.
And being invited somewhere does not mean you were invited to be violated.
We need to teach our children something more powerful than “don’t get hurt.”
We need to teach them:
Don’t hurt people.
We need to teach our sons that consent matters.
We need to teach our daughters that their bodies belong to them.
We need to teach every child that if someone says no, freezes, pulls away, cannot consent, or is unable to consent—
STOP.
And we need to teach people that friendship means protecting someone’s vulnerability, not exploiting it.
I don’t want revenge.
I want accountability so strong that people understand there are consequences for destroying another human being’s sense of safety.
I want a society that stops protecting reputations at the expense of victims.
I want children protected.
I want survivors believed.
I want predators held accountable.
And I want us to stop asking why someone didn’t do enough to prevent their own violation—
and start asking why another person believed they had the right to violate them in the first place.
No more.
Not another child.
Not another woman.
Not another man.
Not another human being.
No more.
Let those words be heard.
Let them be remembered.
Let them become the line we refuse to cross again.
NO MORE.
THE GODDESS SEAL — SO MOTE IT BE
And now I call upon the Divine.
I call upon the ancient wisdom that lives within the earth,
within the bloodline of those who came before us,
within the heartbeat of every soul who has ever cried out for justice.
Let these words be more than words.
Let them be felt.
Let them awaken something ancient within every person who reads them.
Let the soul recognize what the mind has tried to hide.
And to those who carry within them the desire to violate another human being—
to prey upon the innocent,
to manipulate trust,
to take what was never given,
to silence another person’s NO—
may the light find you.
May you no longer hide behind smiles, friendships, status, money, power, excuses, or silence.
May your own conscience become impossible to escape.
May the fire of truth rise around every lie you have ever told.
May your tongue twist when you speak deception.
May the words you use to justify your darkness become tangled in your own throat until truth is the only language left.
May your predatory thoughts lose their power over others.
May every thought born from cruelty, entitlement, domination, or violation turn inward and confront you with the ugliness you have refused to see.
May your mind become a mirror.
And may that mirror never again allow you to pretend you are innocent when you have chosen to cause harm.
Let the Divine expose what is hidden.
Let the predator reveal themselves through their own choices.
Let the mask fall.
Let the truth surface.
And may every person who reads these words feel something awaken within them—
A fire.
A knowing.
A refusal.
A voice that says:
NO.
No more protecting predators.
No more blaming survivors.
No more making excuses for the unforgivable.
No more teaching people how to avoid being raped instead of teaching people not to rape.
No more sacrificing another person’s innocence, safety, dignity, or humanity to protect someone else’s reputation.
We see you.
We hear you.
We will not look away.
And for every survivor—
May your fire return.
May your voice return.
May your power return.
May your soul remember that what was done to you does not define you.
You are not what happened to you.
You are the one who survived it.
You are still here.
And your light is still burning.
So let this pledge travel from soul to soul.
Let it awaken the protectors.
Let it strengthen the survivors.
Let it awaken the conscience of those who have lost their way.
And let it expose those who choose predation.
May truth burn brighter than secrecy.
May justice rise higher than silence.
May protection become stronger than fear.
I speak these words with my whole heart.
I bind myself to this promise:
I will protect.
I will speak.
I will listen.
I will believe.
I will teach.
I will not look away.
And before the Divine—
I seal this vow.
May it ignite the soul.
May it awaken the conscience.
May it expose the darkness.
May it transform humanity.
So mote it be.
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