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The Miss USA pageant stirred up a lot of drama this week for multiple reasons. One of them came from the mouth of Miss Pennsylvania Valerie Gatto, who said in an interview with Today.com that she was “a product of rape.”
Gatto says she’s not “sharing this story for publicity” or “selfish reasons” but that she truly wants to make a difference. Gatto’s mother was raped at knifepoint when she was 19 and chose to keep her baby, rather than have an abortion.
Gatto began asking questions about her father when she was young. In third grade, she was told the version appropriate for someone her age:“Something bad happened to me. A very bad man hurt me but God gave me you.”
She said her mother was a 19-year-old coming out of work on a busy Pittsburgh street when a man dressed in black attacked her at knifepoint and raped her behind some buildings. When he was spooked by a passing car with its high beams on, she managed to get away. She uses her mother’s example as a teaching point, speaking to young women 18 to 30 about sexual assault awareness.
Gatto believes sharing her story can change things, though she says her family never looked at the situation “as something negative.”
Every life deserves a chance. It’s beautiful to see how Valerie Gatto is using hers.
GWB says: Kudos to your mama on how she dealt with the aftermath!!!
And, yes, I can deal with cognitive dissonance well enough to both wish she had been able to shoot that b@sturd (or kick his nuts up into his throat) before he raped her and also not wish Miss Gatto had never been born. A lovely lady who we can hope will make a positive difference in this nasty old world.
GWB says: What’s with the hashtag at the end of that tweet, though? “#savethequeen”? Any idea what that relates to? (I presume the Dutch haven’t taken back Pennsylvania when I wasn’t looking.)
Catherine Wilkinson says: How are the progressive feminists going to reconcile this with their belief it’s wrong to empower women to defend themselves when being raped (who the heck needs a firearm when you can just scream and pee yourself?) with their views on abortion (it’s ok to kill a baby because you weren’t able to tell the bad man “NO” in a strong feminist voice)?
GWB says: Reconcile? Why would they feel the need to reconcile anything? They have been trained in post-modernism – none of that matters.
GWB says: I would like to propose that we try to avoid the phrase “product of rape” however. She is not a “product”. “Result” might be ok, or “consequence”, but she isn’t a “product”.
Xavier says: This girl’s mother must feel so proud, and so justified. But, she’s probably felt that way every day since her daughter was born.
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