Sexual Assault Awareness Month: A Wear Your Voice Reading List
*This piece is published in partnership with Wear Your Voice
WEAR YOUR VOICE CURATED A LIST OF THE MANY PIECES THEY HAVE PUBLISHED OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS WHICH ARE FITTING READS FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH.
Content Note: discussions of sexual violence, including r/pe, abuse of minors, coercion, and stealthing
Survivors of sexual violence need space to be able to talk about and work through their experiences, safely and without judgment or shame. Wear Your Voice is proud and honored to be able to offer this space to queer, trans, and non-binary writers of color.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a time to highlight the work that activists and writers do towards helping to create a world that better understands the power dynamics that lead to the violation of consent. This month-long observance is part of a movement to end sexual violence by raising awareness around it, as well as honoring the experiences of survivors and recognizing their need for healing, catharsis, validation, and solidarity.
We have curated a list of the many pieces we have published over the past few years which are fitting reads for SAAM—whether you are a survivor seeking affirmation and community or you are someone who wants to learn more about how to better advocate and hold space for survivors. This list includes works that explore the pervasiveness of rape culture and the normalized forms of sexual violation that many of us have experienced but may not have had the understanding to name them as violences. Some of the essays dig into the utility of sex, the language we often use to talk about it, and how this language—along with gendered beliefs about sex—can contribute to a culture that disregards consent and safety. Some address the #MeToo Movement, its potential and its failures. But there are also those which provide resources and offer stories about healing.
If you have experienced sexual assault or sex-based violence and you need help (especially if you are in an unsafe situation or environment under quarantine), you can call RAINN’s Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673). This safe, confidential service will connect you with a trained sexual assault service provider in your region.
HEALING
6 ESSENTIAL RESOURCES FOR VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT by Katie Mitchell
THE CASE FOR NEW EROTIC LANGUAGE by Dalychia Saah
SEX SHOULD NOT BE PAINFUL: THE STIGMA OF VAGINISMUS by AT
CANNABIS AND PTSD: HOLISTIC HEALING FOR SURVIVORS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE by Ashley Keenan
FOR SOME SURVIVORS, PHONE SEX CAN BE A PATH TO HEALING by Bry Reed
SURVIVORS AND VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE ANGRY by Lara Witt
DECOLONIZING MY PUSSY: MOVING THROUGH BODY SHAME, GENDER DYSPHORIA, AND SEXUAL ABUSE by Hunter Shackelford
ANTI-RAPE ACTIVISTS ARE LEADING THE FIGHT AGAINST SEXUAL VIOLENCE by Cameron Glover
MY VOW OF CELIBACY HELPED ME FIND SEXUAL LIBERATION by Sherronda J. Brown
I AM TIRED OF OVERCOMING TRAUMA: DOES HEALING EXIST FOR QUEER PEOPLE OF COLOR? by Lara Witt
THE RITUAL OF TAKING NUDE PHOTOS FOR MYSELF HELPED ME RECLAIM MY BODY by Chaney Williams
FAT BLACK WOMEN DESERVE FULFILLING, ENJOYABLE SEX WITHOUT COMPROMISE by Ashleigh Nicole Tribble
NAVIGATING DESIRE IN THE WAKE OF #METOO by Cameron Glover
ROMANCE NOVELS TO READ DURING THE AGE OF #METOO by Michelle Carroll
MIRROR MEMOIRS TO HOST HISTORIC GATHERING OF LGBTQ CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVORS by Wear Your Voice
RAPE CULTURE AND UNDERSTANDING SEXUAL ASSAULT
WHEN SEXUAL BOUNDARIES ARE IGNORED BECAUSE MEN ENJOY OUR PAIN by Sherronda J. Brown
4 THINGS PEOPLE DO THAT HARM SURVIVORS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE by Gloria Oladipo
DISHONOR ROLL: CAMPUS SEXUAL ASSAULTS BEGIN BEFORE COLLEGE by Sherronda J. Brown
HOW MYTHS AND FALSE ASSUMPTIONS ARE STILL MAKING SEXUAL ASSAULT HARD TO REPORT by Jonita Davis
WHEN “NO” ISN’T ENOUGH AND SEXUAL BOUNDARIES ARE IGNORED by Sherronda J. Brown
STOP USING SEXUAL ADDICTION TO COVER UP ABUSE by Princess Harmony
THERE IS A REAL #HIMTOO, AND IT ISN’T ABOUT FALSE RAPE ACCUSATIONS. by Lara Witt
STEALTHING NEGATES CONSENT AND IS RAPE by Aaminah Shakur
I STAYED SILENT BECAUSE BLACK GIRLS AND WOMEN LIKE ME AREN’T LISTENED TO by Katie Mitchell
COMMITTING HARM IS NOT THE SAME AS BEING ABUSIVE by Da’Shaun Harrison
WHAT DO WE DO WHEN SOCIAL JUSTICE LANGUAGE IS WEAPONIZED IN THE SERVICE OF OUR OPPRESSORS? by Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda
LIBERALISM DEMANDS THAT VICTIMS VOTE FOR MORE RAPE CULTURE by Da’Shaun Harrison
WHY I’M DONE TRYING TO GET YOU TO HELP FIGHT RAPE CULTURE by Lara Witt
IS IT RAPE WHEN YOUR PARTNER REMOVES THE CONDOM WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT? by Roslyn Talusan
INCELS: THE VILE, EXTREMIST COMMUNITY OF MEN WHO (REALLY) HATE WOMEN by Sherronda J. Brown
#CHURCHTOO: SPIRITUAL LEADERS ARE ABUSING THEIR POWER AND ABUSING US by Sherronda J. Brown
TRAUMA, ABUSE, AND BREAKING THE SILENCE: WHY WOMEN OF COLOR CAN’T WAIT by Heather Jones
LGBTQIA+
‘IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S NOT ME’ CENTERS ALLOSEXUAL FEELINGS AND FAILS ASEXUAL PEOPLE by Sherronda J. Brown
RAPE CULTURE, DL MEN, AND THE CARCERALITY OF THE CLOSET by Da’Shaun Harrison
POST-RAPE RESOURCES DON’T HELP TRANS WOMEN, BUT THEY COULD by Princess Harmony
HOW THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF HYPERSEXUALIZATION OBSCURES THE POSSIBILITY OF BLACK ASEXUALITY by Sherronda J. Brown
BETWEEN MY THIGHS IS ALL MINE: A JOURNEY TO ACCEPTING MY ASEXUAL IDENTITY by Janyce Denise Glasper
ME TOO: SURVIVORSHIP IS NEITHER LINEAR NOR BINARY by Bani Amor
5 WAYS TO HELP LGBTQ ABUSE SURVIVORS by Renée Fabian
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE AND ABOLITION
SURVIVING RAPE AS A PRISON ABOLITIONIST by Miriam Perez-Putnam
RESTORATIVE JUSTICE CAN HEAL COLLEGE COMMUNITIES by Michelle Carroll
THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE I SURVIVED TAUGHT ME THE IMPORTANCE OF PRISON ABOLITION by Michelle Zacarias
POP CULTURE AND #METOO
HOW METRO GOLDWYN MAYER COVERED UP THE RAPE OF PATRICIA DOUGLAS by Sherronda J. Brown
HARVEY WEINSTEIN, ABUSERS, AND THE PRICE OF SILENCE by Sherronda J. Brown
WHITE WOMEN ARE COMPLICIT IN RAPE CULTURE TOO by Roslyn Talusan
NEW PLAY ABOUT SALLY HEMINGS AND THOMAS JEFFERSON PERPETUATES RAPE CULTURE by Katie Mitchell
JANELLE MONÁE’S “SEX STRIKE” WON’T FIX RAPE CULTURE — OR FEMINISM by Lara Witt
ABUSERS LIKE HARVEY WEINSTEIN DON’T GET TO DECIDE HOW WE REMEMBER THEM by Roslyn Talusan
FOR SURVIVORS, KESHA’S NEW SINGLE IS AN ANTIDOTE AFTER SEXUAL ASSAULT by Roslyn Talusan
BOJACK HORSEMAN, #METOO, AND THE MONSTERS WE LOVE by Clarkisha Kent
BROOKLYN NINE-NINE SHOWS HOW TO DISCUSS #METOO IN POP CULTURE by Sherronda J. Brown
REMEMBERING MISTY UPHAM IN THE ERA OF #TIMESUP AND #METOO by Abaki Beck
LENA WAITHE AND THE OBLIGATIONS OF LEADERSHIP by Daniellé Abena Scott-Haughton
DON’T FORGET THAT BLACK WOMXN WORKED TO MAKE R. KELLY FACE CONSEQUENCES by Sherronda J. Brown
‘SURVIVING R. KELLY’ AND THE ABUSERS WHO HIDE BEHIND HIM by Sherronda J. Brown
R. KELLY IS A PREDATOR, BUT HE GETS AWAY WITH IT BECAUSE WE DON’T PROTECT BLACK GIRLS by Suprihmbé
WHEN WE TALK ABOUT GRACE AND AZIZ ANSARI, WE NEED TO DISCUSS EMOTIONAL LABOR TOO by Suprihmbé
DEAR RUSSELL SIMMONS: #YESYOU by Da’Shaun Harrison