Margaret Cho Provides an Outlet for Fellow Rape Survivors in Her #12DaysofRage Campaign

Margaret Cho, in addition to being hilarious, has always been an outspoken feminist. Now, she is using the lead-up to her new video not only to speak about about her own rage regarding sexual assault she’s experienced, but she’s encouraging others to do the same during her 12 Days of Rage.

The first of her 12 Days of Rage was yesterday, and she will be posting up a new video every day for twelve days, each recounting an experience she’s had with sexual assault, all leading up to the release of her new video, “I Wanna Kill My Rapist,” out on November 13th.

It all started on Thursday, when she engaged in a passionate conversation about sex work, and legalizing it so that sex workers can have the same protections that other work environments have:

Now, she’s broadened the conversation from the assault experienced by sex workers to that experienced by women in general, and rather than simply sharing her own experiences, she has encouraged others not only to share their stories of assault but, as she says in the video above, specifically to do so if they have anger:

In addition to providing a much-needed outlet, I love that Cho’s approach to this validates feelings of anger and strength in survivors, rather than only the sadness and hurt. It’s about encouraging those who feel up to it to take charge of their own narratives. It reminds me of a spoken word piece by one of my favorite poets, Sierra DeMulder – a poem called “Paper Dolls:”

“Our response is the unfailing safety net. We never expect to see her across the wire.” Hopefully, Cho and the rest of us will continue to encourage survivors to tell their stories, heal, and get stronger; will remind survivors that there’s nothing wrong with them if they don’t feel sad or scared, but angry instead. And remember: “The person who did this to you is broken, not you.”

(via Daily Life; Image via Jim Davidson on Flickr)

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Teresa Jusino

Teresa Jusino (she/her) is a native New Yorker and a proud Puerto Rican, Jewish, bisexual woman with ADHD. She's been writing professionally since 2010 and was a former TMS assistant editor from 2015-18. Now, she's back as a contributing writer. When not writing about pop culture, she's writing screenplays and is the creator of your future favorite genre show. Teresa lives in L.A. with her brilliant wife. Her other great loves include: Star Trek, The Last of Us, anything by Brian K. Vaughan, and her Level 5 android Paladin named Lal.

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