Aug 01 2009
Defining a Life
Recently a breakfast radio program got into trouble because they invited a 14 year old girl to take a lie detector test on air. In response to a question about sexual experience she revealed she had been raped at age 12.
There is no defending the stupidity of the radio presenters and producers and they have been widely criticised. I think we need to be careful however about making the girl in question feel she has done something wrong.
My point is there should never be any criticism of people who speak about their experience of rape. There is nothing for this girl to be ashamed of in a situation that by it’s very nature was without her consent and took all power away from her. There seems to be some people who are suggesting that being raped is not as bad as talking about it on radio.
A second little point. I’ve also heard the suggestion that this girls life is ruined. I’m not sure if the suggestion was due to the rape or due to the radio show, but either way… may I ask that we not condemn anyone to a ruined life. Life is, if nothing else, a series of experiences. Some of them are terrible, some of them, like rape will happen only to a few and will indeed be horrible, with far reaching consequences and long felt pain, but there is hope. There is help, there are good experiences to come, there is love and joy and friendship and triumph that can still be had.
To make any single experience, however traumatic, the defining one of a life is to sell that life short.
fatherqzac