rape

The Prosecutors /  by alicia johnson

Research for the novel HUDSON:
Matt Jacob shared an early cut of Leslie Thomas' film The Prosecutors with me, it's powerful and heartbreaking. There is a moment in an interview with a human rights leader (name withheld) in coastal Columbia that struck me so completely, a woman talking about the devastating effect of the paramilitary troopers taking the women from her village. 

She describes how they came into the village with their guns and their machismo, how they would take a woman for maybe a week and then bring her back, give her back. When they did this the village gave up, "immediately the community loses all its strength."

It strikes me because for too long we have thought of rape as having one victim, but it is the entire community, the culture, that is broken by these acts of aggression and violence. 

We are being broken in an ancient way when we can not protect our women and children. 
To remain whole as families, communities, nations, we can have zero tolerance for sexual assault by the paramilitary, or by celebrities, or by presidents. 

Zero tolerance.

 

From the site for The Prosecutors

How do you accuse your neighbor of a war crime? How do you stand in front of uniformed officers and make the claim that rather than liberators, these people are rapists? What does it take to demonstrate to a village that all of the crimes that have been perpetrated against its people are worthy of conviction - including long-ignored sexual violence? 

ABOUT THE FILM

Rape and pillage are concepts as old as war itself. Certainly war carries with it the idea of gathering the spoils found by those who stand victorious on the battlefield. But does sexual violence have to be a part of war? And what are the risks and sacrifices involved in ensuring that the legal system provides justice for everyone? 

THE IMPACT

It is our contention that with perseverance there will be a global understanding that sexual violence cannot be tolerated as a by-product of war and that victims and combatants will expect that these crimes will be prosecuted. 

LEARN MORE

The legal framework for this type of prosecution is changing. Globally, lawyers, governments, and civil society members are developing and expanding the important historical precedence for this effort. For practitioners working today and students who will fill the legal ranks tomorrow there is much to be learned by what is happening in the courts of Colombia, Bosnia, Congo and beyond. 

 

Hunger /  by alicia johnson

Research for the novel Hudson:
A New Novel from Roxane Gay, Hunger
 

from The New Yorker:
Gay also used the platform (Tumblr) to discuss the culture’s punishing relationship with aspects of her own identity: fatness, bisexuality, and blackness. She wrote about the murder of Jordan Davis and, powerfully, about her rape at the age of twelve.

 It is curious to be reminded, in Gay’s new memoir, “Hunger,” that she was first drawn to online forums by the promise of anonymity. The memoir deals with her rape, her overeating, and her struggles with her public and private identities. Before the dawn of avatars, she lived on IRC, “an old-school chat program with thousands of channels populated by thousands of lonely people who were mostly interested in talking dirty to one another.” The memory contrasts with the tone of the book, in which Gay is constantly defining and defending herself against others’ expectations. Increasingly, she has become not just a writer but a spokesperson. Gay, who rejects the ideal of “(th)inner woman” while also wishing that she could herself be smaller, has drawn the ire of fat-acceptance advocates, who presumably wish that Gay were a less equivocal role model. In “Hunger,” she writes candidly of her position, returning to the theme of contradictions: “I have been accused of being full of self-loathing and being fat-phobic. There is truth to the former accusation and I reject the latter. I do, however, live in a world where the open hatred of fat people is vigorously tolerated and encouraged. I am a product of my environment.”

Remnants /  by alicia johnson

Research for the novel HUDSON:
Melissa Kreider's project REMNANTS featured in WIRED recently. 
The photography project underscores the need for an open conversation to dismantle the shaming of victims and change the nature and tone of how "the telling" happens.

From WIRED: 
“I know all these really amazing women now, some who are 20-years-plus out of their assaults, and it’s really awesome for me to see that as someone less than a decade out of her own,” she says. “It makes me feel like it can get better.”

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 431,840 people were raped or sexually assaulted in the US in 2015, the most recent year for which statistics were available. Yet the bureau reports that fewer than one-third of sexual assaults are reported, and only a tiny fraction of perpetrators are convicted.

In an interview for her book, Daring Greatly, Brene Brown describes the ideal as "sharing our story with someone who responds with empathy and understanding," in that context, she says, "shame can't survive."