How Gisèle Pelicot gave courage to women all over the world 

When Gisèle Pelicot said “shame must change sides”, she struck on something that has occupied my thoughts day in, day out for most of my adult life.

It is this: Crimes involving violence against women, and particularly those involving sexual violence, do something more than violate a woman’s safety and dignity.

They inject her with a burning shame that does not belong to her.

As someone who has lived with this feeling my whole life, let me tell you, carrying shame that is not yours to carry is incredibly confusing.

It is harmful. It is heavy. It weighs us down and it keeps us silent and small and scared.

Yet Gisèle – a 72-year-old woman from regional France – used her power and her platform to show that perhaps we can shift the narrative back.

Perhaps we can force the perpetrators of violence against women to carry their own shame and accept accountability for their own shameful acts. Link to full article here.