As women throughout the world courageously come forward to share their own personal #MeToo stories, actress Amandla Stenberg has written a powerful op-ed for Teen Vogue in which she details being sexually assaulted.
In her op-ed, the 19-year-old actress describes two separate accounts, with one starting as “a consensual experience had turned forceful.”
She writes: “Painful things had been done to my body that made me feel broken and disposable. I was unable to consent to them, and was silenced verbally and physically when I protested.”
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According to the “The Hate U Bring” star, she could only see two options in front of her. “I could A) voice my discomfort and protest, probably to be met with further force and/or male disapproval or B) convince myself that this was something I wanted. I chose the latter out of self preservation and to placate male desire. I had not consented, but I had not said no.”
The second time she was sexually assaulted, Stenberg says it was by someone known by her and her peers.
“I woke up to a text message that said I should ‘probably find a plan B.’ This proved to be much more challenging than I anticipated, and ultimately required a trek to a women’s clinic on the outskirts of town,” she explains, adding, “I blamed myself. This was my fault for not having been smarter.”
Like numerous other women, she credits the brave testimony of Dr. Christina Blasey Ford at Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings with inspiring women to make their voices heard.
“Watching Dr. Ford’s testimony pushed me and so many others to move through discomfort that we’d buried,” she continues. “We have been riding waves of upheaval that have actuated processing and release. Each wave is propelled by the one that came before, and its momentum carries into another break. Although these tipping points are chaotic, disorienting, infuriating, and often heartbreaking, I like to believe that real change begins with the eruption of truth.”
You can read her entire op-ed in Teen Vogue.
