Rate this book

Dear Sister: Letters From Survivors Of Sexual Violence (2014)

by Lisa Factora-Borchers(Favorite Author)

4.49 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1849351724 (ISBN13: 9781849351720)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

AK Press

review 1: Unabashedly some of the most upfront feminist lit that I have read in years. Apparently the battle wages on--which wave is this anyway? I digress.My hope is that this book reaches its audience and brings empowerment and a desire to find voice for the pain. I hope that survivors and advocates get exactly what they need and disregard the stuff that they don't. That's what I did--and no matter which letter/ poem/ blog, I appreciated the heart and candor of each writer.Thank you.
review 2: It is 2014 and still it is necessary for a book like this to even be written. So many conservative groups teach women to just shut up; and when they do, here's what happens:"If we teach women that there are only certain ways they may acceptably behave, then we should not be surpr... moreised when they behave in those ways. And we should not be surprised when they behave in those ways during attempted or completed rapes.Women who are told not to speak up too loudly or too forcefully or too adamantly or too demandingly are not going to shout "no" at the top of their goddamn lungs just because some guy is getting uncomfortably close. Women who are taught not to keep arguing are not going to keep saying "no."Women who are taught that their needs and desires are not to be trusted, that they are fickle and wrong and are not to be interpreted by the woman herself, are not going to know how to argue with "but you like kissing, I just thought..."Women who are taught that physical confrontations make them look crazy will not start hitting, kicking, and screaming until it's too late, if they do at all.Women who are taught that a display of their emotional state will have them labeled hysterical and crazy (which is how the perception of events will be discounted) will not be willing to run from a room disheveled and screaming and crying...People wonder why women dont' "fight back," but they don't wonder about it when women back down in arguments, are interrupted, purposefully lower and modulate their voices to express less emotion, make obvious signals that they are uninterested in conversation or close physical proximity and are ignored...They seem normal to women, and they seem normal to men, because we were all raised in the same cultural pond, drinking the same Kool-Aid."THAT is just one small quote from this 230 page book. There are personal accounts, there are poems written by women who are trying to understand or process, and there are thoughtful explanations trying to right this wrong, and there are letters, "Dear Sister," written to help other women who need to know they are not alone. less

Download links for: Dear Sister: Letters From Survivors of Sexual Violence

Advertising