TW: sexual assault/violence, domestic abuse
Back in 2018, I was lucky enough to see Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo Movement speak at my college. She was a wonderful speaker with such an inspiring story, which was why I was thrilled to see that she wrote a memoir. Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement built off of the topics she touched on during her panel at my school and offered a deeper dive into her personal connection to #MeToo. Hearing her story and what she did for other women further ignited my passion for supporting survivors of sexual and domestic violence. In college I was in a sexual assault and violence prevention group where we created programming and events to educate the campus and support survivors on campus. We presented to fraternities and clubs and trained on supporting survivors and how to fight against rape culture that runs rampant in college. Tarana Burke was a huge inspiration to me and Unbound has solidified that for me even more.
Something that I didn’t know about the movement was that #MeToo was launched on twitter unbeknownst to Tarana. It blew up overnight, and she had to fight to earn her well-deserved credit for its success. She feared that years and years of hard work and waiting for the right moment to go public with the movement was wrecked by someone else stealing her thunder on Twitter. Luckily, she was granted credit where her credit was due and the movement has grown to be a household name, which is so cool. Tarana’s ability to turn Twitter into a space where survivors felt comfortable sharing their stories an amazing accomplishment.
So much of Burke’s journey has been horrifying and infuriating. The things she personally experienced, and the things the children and adults she helped have experienced should never have to be even considered. But sadly, they are. This is why it’s so important to have social justice leaders who make it their life’s mission to spread the word to end sexual violence and other hardships that Burke mentioned in this novel. Her role in student groups in college, church groups, neighborhood groups, and mentorship spaces is priceless- we need more people in the world like Tarana.
I also really liked hearing Burke talk about her child and the work they have done in social movements as well. She has clearly created a welcoming and encouraging environment for her child to flourish and I think that sets such a great example for parents to establish social consciousness and justice work as a norm in their families.
The most resonating part of Unbound to me was Burke’s journey to liberation. Like so many survivors of sexual assault and violence, she internalized blame and guilt around her abuse and it lowered her opinion of herself. Seeing her struggle with this was heartbreaking, especially since she was so young. It speaks volumes to the stigma and “hush hush” attitude that still exists around abuse, specifically sexual abuse. As a society we still have a looong way to go in how we treat survivors of sexual violence. Survivors reading this- we believe you and we support you!!
As I mentioned before, reading Unbound relit the spark inside me to get back into sexual violence prevention work. I really recommend reading this book if you get the chance. Honestly, it should be required reading.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
xx, Lauren
Comments