Opinion: Dr. Margaret Kierstein: All women must continue breaking silence, loudly

Daily Hampshire Gazette
December 11, 2017

http://www.gazettenet.com/Margaret-Kierstein-urges-all-women-to-continue-breaking-silence-as-often-as-needed-14227635

All women must continue breaking silence, loudly

Thank you Time magazine. It has done a wonderful job of highlighting the prevalence and profound importance of the abuse of woman over the course of recent history (“Time magazine honors ‘Silence Breakers’,” Dec. 7).

This abuse has gone on since the beginning of time, but repeatedly has new waves of silence breaking, with #MeToo calling on woman to use social media to tell their stories.

Recent history points to the Catholic Church, President Trump, Roy Moore and their ilk, and of course Hollywood’s men in power, to name just a few.

I’m not on Facebook or Twitter, so have not used #MeToo, but I want to be counted here. My incidents are numerous, from doing child care as a young teen, to boys in high school who could assault you as you walked down the hall, to a professor at the University of Massachusetts where my grade depended on whether I had sex with him, to a psychiatrist at a local mental health center who was a colleague. His personnel file was sealed and the abuser moved to yet another mental health facility after at least 11 others came forward as victims. He fortunately ended up in prison since his abuse involved a child as well.

I don’t believe I know a woman who has not been a victim. May we all keep breaking the silence as often as needed, and doing so very loudly.

Dr. Margaret Kierstein

Northampton