nikki

It happened on weekends mostly—when he would come down to visit. And it happened for more than five years, the sexual abuse by her brother. At first, it didn’t seem to bother her. It was just something that was happening between them, something they did together. But it got worse as she grew older. She began learning—from friends, from family—that things related to sex were inappropriate, immoral, shameful even. This was when she began to wonder if she should stop what she was doing with her brother. She didn’t know if she should tell someone about it.

I've tried. Once or twice before—to hold someone else’s heart with mine. Gosh, what a nice idea. Funny thing is, I haven't even gotten far enough to hold their hand.

objectification |əbˌjektəfəˈkāSH(ə)n| noun 1. the action of degrading someone to the status of a mere object. Most of society can agree that objectification is harmful in some way or another to everyone involved, especially women. The biggest reason being that it tells women that they are only worth paying attention to when they have a body to offer, that nothing else about them matters or deserves consideration.

The “male gaze” is a theory that was first introduced by Laura Mulvey in her essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema."

I always heard or read stories about people fighting against the gender construct, transcending binary norms, and subverting conventional gender expression—transfiguring these categories themselves to create their own identities.

Feminism has always been a big topic in society for women and has grown exponentially with the 21st century. But what people don’t realize is that it’s always a part of humanity.