Touch Is The Meaning Of Being Human.

Every Woman Who Has Had Experience With Sexual Violence Of Any Kind Has Not Just Pain, And Not Just Hurt, But Has Knowledge. Knowledge Of Male Supremacy. Knowledge Of What It Is. Knowledge Of What It Feels Like. And Can Begin To Think Strategically About How To Stop It. We Are Living Under A Reign Of Terror. Now What I Want To Say Is That I Want Us To Stop Accepting That That's Normal. And The Only Way That We Can Stop Accepting That That's Normal Is If We Refuse To Have Amnesia Everyday Of Our Lives.

It Is A Tragedy Beyond The Power Of Language To Convey When What Has Been Imposed On Women By Force Becomes A Standard Of Freedom For Women: And All The Women Say It Is So.

In Her Heart She Is A Mourner For Those Who Have Not Survived. In Her Soul She Is A Warrior For Those Who Are Now As She Was Then. In Her Life She Is Both Celebrant And Proof Of Women's Capacity And Will To Survive, To Become, To Act, To Change Self And Society. And Each Year She Is Stronger And There Are More Of Her.

You Think Intercourse Is A Private Act; It's Not, It's A Social Act. Men Are Sexually Predatory In Life; And Women Are Sexually Manipulative. When Two Individuals Come Together And Leave Their Gender Outside The Bedroom Door, Then They Make Love.

We Are Born Into A World In Which Sexual Possibilities Are Narrowly Circumscribed. . . . We Are Programmed By The Culture As Surely As Rats Are Programmed To Make The Arduous Way Through The Scientist's Maze, And That Programming Operates On Every Level Of Choice And Action.