Today has been a depressing, inspiring and eye-opening Saturday. Forced inside because of abysmal weather (sleet, snow, lightening, thunder — you name it), I caught up on the PBS docuseries Women, War & Peace. As I sat reeling from what… Read More ›
Violence
Delving into Rape Culture
Last night I attended NOW-NYC’s event, “She Asked For It: How Rape Myths Hurt Us All.” It was an interactive panel featuring author Helen Benedict, forensic nurse Karen Carroll (who also testified in the NYPD rape cop case), The Line… Read More ›
On Confronting My Rapist
** Trigger warning ** I am a statistic. I represent the 1 out of 6 American women who are victims of attempted or completed rapes in their lifetimes. I am among those victims who never reported their rape(s) to the… Read More ›
Manhattan D.A. Lets Child Rapist Cop a Plea Deal
One of these days, I’m going to stop reading the news. Everything I read as of late infuriates me, including yesterday’s news that former sportscaster Marvell Scott will only serve 20 days of community service for what the NY Post… Read More ›
“Breast Ironing” in Cameroon
I had the honor of attending today’s CEDAW discussion on women in conflict & post-conflict situations. The room was packed with both UN experts and NGO representatives to kick off the Committee’s process of developing a general recommendation on the… Read More ›
Demanding Justice for Rape Survivors
I just returned from the rally to demand justice for rape survivors and maximum sentencing for NYPD rape cops Mata and Moreno. What an inspiring event with an amazing turnout — dozens of men and women gathered to lend their… Read More ›
Wartime Rape: A Primer
The news of Libya’s Gadhafi giving his soldiers Viagra to perpetrate rape as a weapon of war may seem shocking to some. It’s hard to conceptualize such brutality and even harder when news of it seems to come out of… Read More ›
Are SlutWalks Awesome…Or Offensive?
It seems you can’t read a paper or blog these days without articles about SlutWalks — protests against victim-blaming and rape culture — popping up. I’ll take this opportunity to add to that growing pile of stories. I admit, when… Read More ›
Reproductive Coercion is Abuse, Too
I caught last night’s Law & Order: SVU episode, which featured John Stamos (yummm) as a reproductive abuser (not yummm), and it got me thinking. How many viewers dismissed the episode, not recognizing reproductive abuse as a real and viable… Read More ›
An Open Letter to the NY Daily News
Although the Daily News printed one paragraph of a letter to the editor I submitted in response to the “sex romp” debacle, it has yet to issue an apology or retract the egregious term. As such, what follows is my… Read More ›
