Removing the Mask and Facing the Mirror
She removed her mask so that she could help others heal from the pain of sexual assault. By Jaime Gill
Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who’ s the fairest of them all? Surely it cannot be me, because if I was those men wouldn’ t have raped me.
T his revision from a line made familiar by the Disney movie Snow White, became the statement that I made to myself as I realized that I was a rape survivor. A survivor of rape. A girl who was raped. No matter how you say it, the sting of the reality of what happened to me did not get any softer. How did this happen? Better yet, how did this happen to me? At the mere age of 17, I was reflecting that there was something very different about me.
16 The Well Magazine / Spring 2013
I was now a rape survivor. Raised in a single parent home, I was the baby girl of a family of five. I was very much loved by my family and neighbors, some would even say spoiled. I was protected, supported, and given every opportunity in the world to pursue all of my dreams. I was the shadow to my older brothers and sisters. I cherished times with my grandparents and my mom and grandmothers were my heroes. My dad and grandfathers were the coolest people I knew. Honor student, active in school. Former Girl Scout. Friendly to all that I met and knew. How did this happen to me? Why did