First time I hear about this associated meaning too. Typically in contemporary art I'd say you often see Medusa used as a symbol of female defiance in face of a male dominated society.

It is important to know meanings of symbols for sure, but meanings differ from groups, cultures, background knowledge and personal experiences.

We are talking about an ancient myth here, if I took an ancient myth to be the symbol of some movement I found it doesn’t invalidate all current and past meanings connected to it.

It’s kind of unfair to push the meaning it has for you and your group to others. I’m not sure if I’m being clear, but I hopenyou get my point. ;)

Medusa being the symbol for sexual assault is not unanimously known in the world, is extremely recent in history terms, and being taken as such a symbol doesn’t cancel all past symbology connected to her and her myth.

It’s actually controversial if she was raped or if she just seduced Poseidon, translations are tricky, and translating from an ancient greek is not an exact science. The ambiguity could be also proposital according to some scholars… but who knows? Maybe we’ll never know for sure, there’ll be theories and different versions. That’s why myths are powerful.

That said, I’m not acting with prejudice or discrimination against any group. I’ve written a bit more about in the other reply in this thread.