Standing Up to Evil*

Giselle Pelicot stood up to evil and won. We’ve heard a lot about her recently letting us know how courageous she’s been after being drugged by her husband for over nine years and being raped by some 70 men whom he had recruited online for just this purpose. She has, we are told, become a feminist icon. Indeed, she is so dignified, articulate, so clear about what she says and what she went through.

 The way I understand her experience is perhaps simpler. No matter how we understand evil, what her husband did fits the definition. She stood up to evil, and in standing up to that evil and in her sharing it, she shows us how to confront it and win. Likely the evil we will have to fight is different than hers, or likely come from another source, still, we can extrapolate how to stand up to it

• We bring it out in the open regardless of consequences
• We confront it boldly and without rose colored glasses
• We stand up to it fearlessly
• We remain unbowed knowing we are in the right
• We redeem it by taking away its power over us

And Giselle Pelicot does one more thing, she highlights the fact that like Rosa Parks before her, ordinary people can and do stand up to evil and win.

*reposted from GGID page