sexual assault
How #MeToo calls everyone to fight sexual harassment and assault
The ultimate goal is to dismantle toxic constructions of masculinity. There are steps we can take now.
A novel that shows the power of #MeToo
Winnie M Li’s story of sexual assault is hard to read. That’s precisely why it’s so important.
How should campus sexual assault accusations be judged?
Standards of evidence are politically contested. But the most crucial issue is due process.
Safe spaces in dangerous places
Laura Kipnis, sexual assault, and the question of female agency
by Jane Dailey
Tales of fierce women
Telling stories of resistance is itself an act of resistance.
When theology fails
After Ruth Everhart was raped, she had to rebuild her beliefs about God’s will.
Rape on campus
Attaining justice for victims of sexual assault cannot be a matter of belief or disbelief. They are individuals, not symbols of a cause.
Can football produce righteous warriors?
Arthur Remillard sees the best of football’s warrior culture as a man training his body into subjection for the protection of the weak and the advancement of all righteous causes. And maybe it’s because I know so little about football, but I don’t see it. How does throwing a ball around a field protect the weak? How does sucking all the money from educational institutions advance righteous causes? How does making a touchdown make a man more righteous?
Astonished, by Beverly Donofrio
Beverly Donofrio had just been “looking for a monastery to join, for Christ’s sake.” She had closed her laptop, having bookmarked religious communities she might write to, then had fallen into a deep sleep. During the night she was raped at knife point in her home in Mexico.
reviewed by Suzanne Guthrie
Justice for Native American women
If you haven’t realized the urgent need for an expanded Violence Against Women Act, read today’s New York Times, where novelist Louise Erdrich restates the theme that runs through her powerful novel The Round House (reviewed in a previous post): Native American women are being battered and raped by non-native men, and they have no legal support for pursuing justice—because non-natives are immune from prosecution by tribal courts.
The conversation Akin provoked
It's hard to imagine a more efficient way to rack up diverse denunciations than Rep. Todd Akin's approach in an interview on Sunday, when in one breath he both promoted a foul bit of junk science alleging that rape victims don't generally get pregnant (and thus don't need abortion services) and coined the term "legitimate rape." Pretty much everyone everywhere has condemned his comments, and rightly so.
A number of rape victims have written responses, including Shauna Prewitt, whose post at xoJane went viral and taught a lot of us something appalling that we didn't know.
The cross as good news for women
The passion narrative is the story of a series of violations. Is it good for us to find our identity in it?