Translating Emotion to Writing
When someone asks me about writing, I tend to shy away. I don’t know what the truth is. I don’t know when a lie becomes a fact. I merely write.
Author • Poet • Advocate
I’m going to tell you a story. A story I’ve never told anyone before…
I tell people right away I’m a survivor of childhood sexual abuse (either face to face, or through my writing), but I didn’t use to. I held that shame and fear of judgment in tightly for years, a filmy veil of anxiety separating me from everyone else. I didn’t feel I could get close to friends or even lovers, always holding back this ugly secret. If anyone saw the real me, the tainted, used me, they wouldn’t want to pursue any kind of relationship; either that or they’d use it against me somehow.
Joy is the story of the title character, a divorced mother of three children, who rose to become founder and matriarch of a powerful family business. She invented The Miracle Mop and became a success at pursuing her own patent and supporting her large family. The film is a semi-fictional and inspirational portrayal of how Joy overcomes personal and professional challenges to reach the top as a businesswoman.
This is just one of the many questions a survivor of childhood sexual abuse asks ourselves every day of our lives. People who have not been traumatized in this way will likely scoff at this question, thinking, “Of course you’re not! Why would you think such a silly thing!” or will actually say to us, “Don’t be a victim,” or “Get over it, move on,” — and when you’ve thankfully never experienced abuse, this kind of question does seem silly, and so of course your responses to get over it make perfect sense to you.