what courage looks like

Let’s be clear: the victims are not cowards, and this piece doesn’t say they are. They were the brave ones.

People like to be simplistic and focus entirely on the perpetrator, forgetting that it takes the right conditions for a predator to work. Forgetting how their own silences may encourage some other perpetrator somewhere else.

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The Jian Ghomeshi story is about everything: it is about how some men treat women; it is about women swallowing their pain and walking through life afraid to seek justice – because they’re pretty sure there is no justice. It is about the incredible lengths we will go to forgive bad boys who are cute, charming and profitable. It is about how the boss always wins, if he is one of those boys. And in a very real way, it is about cowardice. Deep, thick, stinking cowardice. And…