The author of 10 books and former model spoke on the ABC program about the “toxic silence” surrounding sexual abuse.
“We need to get a lot better at talking about it and one of the reasons is because the silence protects the predators,” Moss said.
“It also shames the victims. It also robs us as a community of the tools to be able to support people adequately when these things happen to them.”
A survivor of sexual violence herself, Moss’ newest book The Fictional Woman reveals that she was raped in her twenties by a man she knew. He was later charged with raping about a dozen women.
“I want the viewers at home to know, some of whom might be going through something of this at this moment, that you will get past this, this too will pass, you are brave, you are strong and you do not need to be silent.”
The cover of Moss’ latest book, The Fictional Woman, published this month.
The cover of Moss’ latest book, The Fictional Woman, published this month.
The cover of Moss’ latest book, The Fictional Woman, published this month.
Moss’ comments were met with loud applause from the Q&A audience and the program broadcast live tweets praising the writer, including “Tara Moss is my new idol: compassionate, eloquent, composed”.
But The Daily Telegraph reports that Internet trolls later abused Moss via social media using sexually violent and threatening language. One Twitter user wrote: “Have you no shame whore? Lying about being raped to sell your garbage book? I hope you do get raped for your lies.”
Moss responded via Instagram, posting an image of the user’s tweets and writing, “Lest we forget these people are out there and others live with them every day. (And no, the pathetic rape threats since Q&A won’t silence me, so you may as well give up now.)”
The Twitter account of the abusive user has now been suspended.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
