#MeToo brings changes to #VIGALAND Blog

Hard to believe it's been two years since my last post appeared on this #Vigaland blog. I became busy with writing books, mentoring others who wanted to write their memoirs (see my author's page at Amazon for all my books, including my latest and last on how to write your memoir, titled "Don't Write Your MEmoir without ME!")

After too many hours of staring at screens, I decided it was time for a change and just recently deleted my several websites, including my personal site. But I am keeping this blog for all those who have endured sexual abuse in their lives and careers as I know there are just too many of us. The furor that erupted and opened a can of worms with the Harvey Weinstein affair and all those celebrities coming forward, along with the #MeToo movement, reminded me that this blog was important and needed to be kept alive.

Until now, it had been aimed only at victims of incest, but now #Vigaland is evolving into a much more general site on sexual abuse in all its forms. I sincerely hope you will continue to follow this blog and share the URL with others as I have lots to share with you that was previously only posted on my personal website, now deleted.

Future posts on here will include a series of true stories by others who found the courage to share their #MeToo heartaches with me and which I published and podcast early in 2018. I know you will find these interesting and I am hopeful some of you will leave comments or even share your stories with me on this blog.

I also intend to bring you my reviews of MEMOIRS of ABUSE that I've read & reviewed over the past 5 years. If you like to read books by others who have shared similar experiences to yours, I think you'll want this information.

So, that's where I'm at right now. Stay tuned and keep following. Lots to come over 2018. Thanks for staying with me.

Best

Viga Boland, author of NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER, a true memoir of incest.

#TRUMP'S #ELECTION RE-CONFIRMED ONE INDISPUTABLE FACT

The day after the election, I was in horrible mood. I felt disappointed, defeated, victimized all over again. My husband looked at me and said sadly, "What's done is done. We all just have to get over it." 

There it was again: "just get over it". And I knew he was right. There was nothing I could do. The people had spoken. No matter what, they preferred having a bigoted, narcissistic man lead the US to putting a woman in such a lofty position of power. It didn't matter that Trump obviously enjoyed belittling Hillary during the debates: "What a nasty woman!" It was irrelevant that he sees it as male, and particularly, celebrity entitlement, to joke about grabbing women by their private parts just because he feels like it; or kissing them just because he likes kissing pretty women. That's what men do. It's all part of "go sew your wild oats son!"

My husband was curious about my reaction. At least he cares. He said: "I've never known you to follow politics but you've been glued to this election. Why?" He waited when I didn't reply immediately. Then he said what I hesitated to say: "Trump reminds you of your father, doesn't he?"

Despite myself, despite so many years of being strong, despite writing 3 books based on the child sexual abuse I'd suffered at the hands of my father, despite feeling I was about as healed as I could be, I started crying. But these were tears of anger.

"Yes!" I blurted. "That's what it is! Throughout this entire election, all the debates, I watched a man abuse without apologizing, name call, demean, belittle a woman, and always with that supercilious smirk on his face. It sickened me. It reminded me of everything I've tried to forget for over 55 years!"

"Will you ever get over what your father did to you, honey?" my husband asked.

"I'm beginning to think that's impossible," I replied. "You push it down, away. You get on with your life, get involved in other things. You do everything you can to forget. And then something like this election comes along and reminds you of one indisputable fact: it's still a man's world. Men can lie, abuse, deceive, but if they can convince everyone a woman is guilty of the same, they win. And that is something I will never, ever understand nor accept."

Yes, I was hoping Hillary Clinton would win. A win for her would have been a win for women everywhere, not just abuse victims like me, but all the women struggling to prove they are as capable, as talented and as intelligent as men. Other countries...Great Britain, India...have elected brilliant, competent females to the highest positions in the country, but America gave that job again to a man. I wish him and the people of the US the great America he has promised to them.

Viga Boland is the author of 4 memoirs, 3 of which detail her life as a victim of childhood sexual abuse (incest). All books are available in digital format for all e-readers from her website store. 

Viga Boland is also podcasting her entire Gold-Medal winning book, 'NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER" from her website, iTunes, Stitcher and GooglePlay under the title "Vigaland". You can listen to Chapter 1 at THIS LINK. Subscribe today so you don't miss a single chapter!

YOU DON'T "JUST GET OVER" CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE BY A PARENT

​YOU DON'T JUST GET OVER #CHILDHOOD #SEXUAL #ABUSE BY A PARENT (#INCEST)

I haven't touched this blog in months. 

After writing 3 memoirs about the incestuous situation I lived with for 14 years, I thought I was finished, healed. Then this morning, the nightmare.

7:38 am! My eyes fluttered open. My heart was pounding and my mouth was dry. Where is he? He was just here in this room. I was screaming at him. How could he think I wasn't angry at him all those years he was molesting me? What an asinine question he'd just asked me! He'd asked if I was so angry at him, why hadn't I told him? 

But he didn't ask. Not ever. Nor did he ever say he was sorry. I'd just woken from a dream. No, it was a waking nightmare, just like the one I'd lived with every day between the years of 11 - 24. My father never asked over all those years of sexual abuse if I was angry at him. What I felt or thought never mattered. I didn't matter. 

My waking nightmare today really disturbed me. Where had it sprung from? Why now, nearly 50 years after the abuse ended, and after I poured all of it onto the pages of 3 memoirs?

It sprung up because you don't "just get over childhood sexual abuse" by a parent. Call it what is is: INCEST. Horrible, ugly word. 

Doesn't sound quite as ugly when you call it CSA, does it. But it's just as bad for any child sexually abused by someone else, be the abuser an adult or even another older child. i know this for a fact: I've met and spoken with too many adults who are only just now finding explanations for their own sometimes crazy, even dangerous behaviour while they were growing up. They are only just realizing why they suddenly 'lose it' over nothing. 

See, it doesn't matter how old you are. I'm 70 now and I still see and hear him regularly. He visits me, almost daily, just like he used to nearly 50 years ago. He still haunts me, hurts me and enrages me. I want to kill him, just as I wanted to then. But I couldn't do it then and it looks like I still can't do it now.

Writing 3 memoirs helped a lot. I got it off my chest. I no longer feel ashamed. I've gotten on with my life and had a very good and fulfilling one. 

But am I truly healed? 

©Viga Boland, author

NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER: this original ugly true story

LEARNING TO LOVE MYSELF: the continuation into recovery and self-discovery

VOICE FROM AN URN: my mother's side of my story from her point of view

SHINING the #SPOTLIGHT on #CHILD #SEXUAL #ABUSE

The movie, "SPOTLIGHT" winning the #Oscar for Best Picture was more than a victory for the producers, directors, actors and journalists acknowledged in the film. It was a victory for victims of child sexual abuse. As a victim, I was thrilled to see this happen. And coupled with what I wrote in my previous post regarding #Lady Gaga telling the world it doesn't know how we feel until it happens to you, it's given me real hope that maybe, just maybe, awareness of child sexual abuse will indeed increase as more of us share our own stories and break the hideous silence surrounding abuse.

But how quickly will that awareness increase? How many more movies like "Spotlight" or the documentary, "The Hunting Ground", or songs like Lady Gaga's will it take to get the message across that rape, at any age, under any circumstances, regardless of culture or religion is NOT okay?! What will it take for victims to speak up without fear of reprisal and/or rejection by their own families? Look at Lady Gaga for instance: she opened up about the rape in 2014. But according to THIS ARTICLE, her grandmother and Aunt Sheri didn't find out about it until her performance at the Oscars. No surprise there for us other victims of sexual abuse: I told no-one that my father had sexually abused me for nearly 45 years! For pete's sake, I was 65 when I finally spoke up! Am I unusual? Not at all. More likely the norm. And I know that for a fact from the many who have told me about it in my public talks on sexual violence and in my private Facebook group. While shame keeps us from speaking up, much of the time it's our fear of the humiliation and shame such disclosure will dump on our families. So to protect them, we remain the sacrificial lambs on the altars of silence.

Speaking of altars, while the film, "Spotlight" put the spotlight on the Catholic Church, I think it would be dreadfully narrow-minded of those interested in this subject of abuse by the clergy to limit their finger pointing to the Catholic Church. Just pick up the book I've been reading and studying for a year now, "BREAKING THEIR WILL: SHEDDING THE LIGHT ON RELIGIOUS CHILD MALTREATMENT" and prepare to be horrified, even shocked by the degree, range and reasons for the abuse of children in ALL organized religions. What an eye-opener! And what you will read, if you dare, will make you want to vomit. No religion is "clean" when it comes to child sexual abuse. What's more...and don't get all uptight at me for saying this...much of the abuse is based on the teachings of the Bible and all the other "holy" books depending on which religion one follows. If I had the time and space here, there are so many sections of "Breaking their Will..." that I have highlighted, mulled over and would love to share. But I'd rather suggest one buy the book and read it for yourself. And speaking of books, you might also like to read "SPLIT" by a former nun, Mary Dispenza. That link will take you to my review of Mary's book on my other website. (Mary must be rejoicing, as I am, about the Oscar for "Spotlight").

Oh I could go on an on here but I'll summarize my feelings on religion and sexual abuse of children with this quote I found HERE:

We should not attempt to mould human sexuality around otherworldly religious ideals. Sexual dysfunction always results. Psychologists and sociologists have noted the association between extreme religious fervour and psycho-sexual problems (the former causing the latter)

No, I'm not saying religious belief is behind ALL childhood sexual abuse. Not at all...and it certainly wasn't a factor in my father's sexual abuse of me. But sadly, it is a justification too many give for abusing children sexually and every other way. When you factor in religion, along with narcissism and the sense of entitlement too many men have when it comes to women's bodies and minds, well, we have one hell of a long way to go yet in shining the spotlight on child sexual abuse, let alone eradicating it.

©Viga Boland, speaker and author of "No Tears for my Father", a true story of incest.

YOU DON'T KNOW HOW IT FEELS UNTIL IT HAPPENS TO YOU

"You don't know how it feels till it happens to you" belted Lady Gaga at the 88th Academy Awards as a throng of sexual assault victim/survivors joined her onstage. When she was done, the cameras panned over the faces of Hollywood celebrities and caught the tears brimming in their eyes.

 As I listened and watched, I asked myself "Will this do it?" Can Lady Gaga reach the millions with the message that I, a non-celebrity, a child victim of incest, who kept quiet about what happened to me for nearly 45 years shared in my book "No Tears for my Father"? Someone, somewhere must get the message across that non-consensual sex is rape! 

Before Lady Gaga sang, Joe Biden took the stage to urge us all to pledge our support for the countless numbers of victims of rape on College campuses. We could do this by visiting the website at IT'S ON US where we pledge to do the following: 

1. To recognize that non-consensual sex is sexual assault

2. To identify situations in which sexual assault may occur

3. To intervene in situations where sexual consent has not or cannot be given

4. To create an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported. 

The pledge is a wonderful idea, a step in the right direction for students on college campuses. But is there any hope it might raise awareness of those other victims of sexual abuse, the children, the ones being abused in their own homes. 

There is no question: all rape is horrid for victims of any age. But is there any rape that compares to that of a child by a member of their own family in their own homes? I think not. Taking each point of the pledge above into consideration in relation to child sexual abuse by family members, I ask you:

1. Will that father, grandfather, stepfather, brother or other family member who rapes a daughter, grand-daughter, step-daughter, sister, son or brother not once, but repeatedly, day after day, for years in their own homes accept, or even care that the child didn't consent? My father certainly didn't. 

2. Will the general public ever recognize, admit to the reality that sexual abuse, namely incest, is happening in our homes, maybe right next door. Will the neighbours, teachers, clergy "identify a situation in which sexual assault may occur"? Does anyone want to admit, identify that home can be the ideal situation for sexual assault to occur? We victims know better. 

3. Will people "intervene in home situations where sexual consent has not or cannot be given". Will even the mother whose child has just told her that Daddy is doing something bad to her believe her child? Will she intervene or even have the courage to ask her husband or father (the grandfather) about what her child has claimed? Ask the victims of incest what response they got from mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and other relatives when they dared to speak up. Many of those victims were told to never mention it again! And they didn't.  As a result, the family itself allowed the non-consensual sex to continue. 

4. Is it even possible to "create an environment in the home in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported?" Incest exists in so many cultures. It continues through generations because incest is a family affair: what happens in the family, stays in the family. 

How wonderful it would be if all it took was someone like me sharing my true story of incest and getting folks to sign a pledge to bring about change. But I'm not famous. I'm not Lady Gaga or Joe Biden. I can't reach millions with one song. I reach small groups of people here and there, and sure, it all helps raise awareness. But for every one who buys my book, "No Tears for my Father" and reads it, 2-3 times as many tell me there's no way they could read that: the details, the horror, the ugliness is too much to handle. Tell me about it! It's easier not to know than to know. And even if you do read the book, as Gaga sings, "You don't know how it feels till it happens to you." What you hope is it never will happen to you or your son or daughter. 

It's On Us is a wonderful and necessary project and is a great beginning. But it will take a lot more than Lady Gaga singing her song and letting us know she too has been a victim of rape to help the children being raped, not on college campuses but in their own homes by those they should be able to trust most: their immediate family members. These children are doubly raped: by the abuser and by the family that denies the abuse. As Joe Biden said at the Oscars: "We must and we can change the culture so that no abused woman or man like the survivors that you see tonight will have to ask themselves, 'What did I do?' They did nothing wrong."

That is exactly the message in my books, except my focus is the children. While I can never reach the millions that Lady Gaga and Joe Biden did, by sharing this blog post you can help me reach a few more than I have already. Every little bit helps. Thanks for reading and sharing. Your comments are welcomed. 

Viga Boland is a speaker and the author of a Trilogy based on a true story of incest:

No Tears for my Father

Learning to Love Myself

Voice from an Urn

I am ashamed that this woman never held her father accountable for his actions. Her weakness is unbelievable.

"I am ashamed that this woman never held her father accountable for his actions. Her weakness is unbelievable."

So wrote a "reviewer" of my book, "No Tears for my Father" Based on that 2-line review, she gave the book a 2-star rating. If I were this "reviewer", I would be ashamed of being listed as a "reviewer". This is not how one reviews or ranks a book.

But far more important than that aspect is this one: I would be ashamed of being so judgemental. Has this person suffered childhood sexual abuse herself? Was her abuser her father? If not, how can she possibly understand the fear of a child who has been raised with physical, mental and sexual abuse? How can she understand the conflict between being abused all of her young life by a parent. Not a stranger. But a parent. Not a neighbour. A member of the family. How can she understand the long-reaching ramifications of bringing such ugliness into the extended family's life? Of the fear of not getting the justice she seeks, a justice so often denied victims in the courts? Of the fear of the abuser coming back to abuse more and even worse if the attempt to hold him accountable fails and the story has been aired far and wide.

Why did those women allegedly abused by Billy Cosby or those boys victimized by Sir Edward Heath so many years ago wait till now to speak up? Why do so many victims remain silent for so long, sometimes dying with their secret untold? Are we ALL weak? Is the reviewer above ashamed for all of us then? Oh wait. No, she's just ashamed of me because these victims have all spoken up NOW,  while these public figures are alive and can be investigated and possibly made to account for their actions? My abuser is dead. No accountability there. I let him get away with it.

Perhaps. But again, there's one huge difference between all of them and me, and all the other victims of incest who choose to remain silent: the Cosby and Heath victims weren't molested or raped daily by their own fathers. Guess what Miss or Mrs Reviewer: there is a difference here!

Regardless of what a parent does to a child, or even what a child does to a parent, there is that bond, a loyalty, or whatever you want to call it, that holds children back from ratting on a parent, just as so many parents can't hate a child who turns into a murderer. We all know what happened is wrong, but something holds us back. There is also that bond between mother and child that keeps that child from telling mommy about the bad that daddy is doing, especially when daddy has brainwashed you to believe no-one will believe you anyway. I've heard from hundreds of victims whose families have cast them out for telling lies about their father. No wonder victims choose to stay silent.

Just like I did. I elected to put up with the abuse, to die with it if necessary, rather than tell on daddy or hurt mommy. And that makes me "weak" as far as this "reviewer" is concerned.

I also elected to keep it all secret from my new family: my husband and my children, as I couldn't see how telling what happened while my father was still alive could possibly benefit me or my family. Instead, it could have torn us apart. My husband might have killed my father on learning the truth. Would he then deserve to go to jail for killing my abuser? And what of my children and their grandmother had they learned the truth while my father was still alive? How could blowing this all open while my father was alive benefit those I loved more than myself? Their happiness mattered more to me than me. Yep. I'm weak...if that's how one defines weakness.

I chose to tell my story when I was ready and when my family were ready for me to share it. I shared it to help others who needed to know they are not alone. I spoke up for the voiceless who may take as many years, or even more to speak up for themselves or to hold their abusers accountable.

And I stand up for all the other "weak" victims of incest like me.  In your "weakness", in your silence, in your willingness to suffer so others may be happy, you are incredibly strong. I am proud, not ashamed, to stand with you.

©Viga Boland
Author of "No Tears for my Father", a memoir of incest.
Author of "Learning to Love Myself", a memoir of recovery after incest.
Editor of Memoirabilia, a magazine for memoir writers.

BLAME THE #ABUSER...NOT THE VICTIM of INCEST

Today, I received a cheque payment for my book, "No Tears for my Father". It was accompanied by what was, for me, a heart-breaking note, so heart-breaking in fact, that I felt compelled, after a long silence, to write this blog post.

The purchaser was a woman who found out her husband of many years had been having an ongoing sexual relationship with his daughter from a previous marriage. This lady's world fell apart on learning this ugly truth, and who can blame her? She is now desperately trying to heal and get over this ugliness that she says has just about destroyed her 14-year marriage. Somehow, she feels my book will help. I find myself wondering how it can.

You see, she is furious and angry with the daughter and has banished her from their home. By doing so, it's obvious she blames the daughter for what happened between her and her father when the daughter was an adolescent. The sexual abuse started when the girl was 11 and continued into adulthood, just as mine did.

But here's the thing: it was the daughter who told her about it. Why? Why did she tell her? Did she do it because she wanted to hurt her father's wife? According to this lady, the daughter told her because, yes, she wanted to destroy the marriage. This may be so, and if it is, how horribly sad that this daughter is "in love", as it were, with her father and is now resentful of his wife.

A while back, I talked with a hairdresser who confessed to me that she had been in love with her father who began having sexual relations with her after the death of his wife. She hated herself for liking it, and when her father found a new woman and stopped the sex with his daughter, she tried suicide. When she told me about this, she was still single and unable to have a normal relationship with men, despite therapy. Her father had also passed away in the meantime. She was a broken shell of a woman who gravitated between loving and hating her father.

With her in mind, and now the daughter this lady has thrown out of the house and obviously blames for the entire sexual relationship, I ask the same question I answered for myself years ago: who really is to blame in such a situation? Did these daughters encourage their fathers? Did they ask their fathers to have sex with them when they were pre-pubescent teens? And even if they had, again, which I very much doubt, who is to blame? Who had complete control of the situation? Who should have refused to let such a situation occur and develop over the years to the extent it did that now these daughters were "in love" with their fathers? And if I hadn't been fortunate enough to find a man that I fell in love with, and through whom I found the courage to stand up to my father and get myself out of that loathsome situation, would I have ended up like them? If I believed in God, I'd be praying mighty hard right now for a "no" to that question. The thought disgusts and revolts me.

So now, back to the lady who hopes my book will help her heal. I hope it will but I believe it can only do so if she realizes that when I was that sexually abused teen, I despised what happened to me and fought it every day until I finally got away from my father. That is what she will read about in my book. She will read how my father manipulated and brainwashed me; how I was too fearful of him to fight him or tell on him; how he convinced me that no-one would believe me. And if this lady reads all that and gets it, she might, just might put the blame where it belongs: on the father and not the daughter. Perhaps she will re-think the reason the daughter told her about the incest: perhaps doing so was a plea for help. I'm willing to bet that behind the daughter's admission is yet another very mentally ill victim of incest in need of therapy.

No-one will ever convince me the child is to blame when an adult initiates sex with him/her. No-one! I hope when this lady has finished reading "No Tears for my Father", she will blame the right person: her husband.