by Oke, SheKos contributor
When you grow up powerless over what is done to your body, and you have to let it happen so you can survive, you become an adult who continues to allow anything to be done to your body to maintain survival. You learned to survive the beatings before you learned the alphabet. The words--they aren't so easy to ignore. They stay longer than the bruises and the welts.
The damage doesn't just include the physical. It is the mental, the emotional, the inner essence that is taken. This happens so often that with time you just let anything happen to you, be said to you, be taken from you. Because that is all you know.