[Trigger Warning] As April brings another Sexual Assault Awareness Month into effect, I can’t help but think about self-care. I’ve written about sexual assault in a variety of ways throughout the past eight years here on The Siren. Somehow, I just can’t bring myself to write another post about rape. I know it’s important. I…
[Trigger Warning] Dear Steve Sebelius, I was disheartened to see your opinion piece, titled Beware of the ‘safe space’ movement. In the decade we’ve known each other, I have seen your usually unfailing support for the oppressed. Despite your occasionally borderline sense-of-humor and brash public persona, I know you to be kind and (probably hard…
[Trigger Warning: Sexual violence, sexual assault, sexual abuse, suicide, depression] Yesterday news broke that du Pont family heir Robert Richards IV will not be going to prison following a conviction of raping his three-year-old daughter. You read that right. A man who was convicted of repeatedly sexually assaulting his daughter for at least two years,…
Trigger Warning: Sexual assault and gun violence Of all the dirty campaign tricks, this latest one from Republican lieutenant governor candidate Sue Lowden (or is it Chuck Muth?) has to be one of the vilest. Late Saturday, Steve Sebelius broke the news of a repugnant piece of propaganda released by Lowden’s camp. The six-page letter,…
Today’s post was written by the amazing Soraya Chemaly, who was one of the lead organizers of last year’s campaign to get Facebook to take action about rape-joke pages, and my colleague at Feminism 2.0. (This post originally appeared on Fem2.0 and is reprinted with their permission.) Considering that up until last year Nevada ranked…
[Trigger Warning] Now is the time for self-care. The world may not understand, or even call it selfish but what do I have left if I crumble and fall away? I give everything to you, dear readers. I turn myself inside out and lay my beating heart in your hands — again and again. I…
[Trigger Warning] While it may end up a footnote compared to “Obamacare,” President Obama could do worse than to be remembered for telling survivors of sexual violence, “I’ve got your back.” But, as they say, he’s not just talking the talk, he’s walking the walk on this one. Last week, the Obama administration released a…
Trigger Warning: rape, violent crime Even as the Justice Department reports that our nation’s crime labs are processing more rape kits, there is a greater backlog than ever in analysis of potential evidence. Indeed, it is estimated that there are as many as 400,000 untested kits sitting in evidence storage all across the country. Considering…
On Dec. 17 sex workers all over the world congregated to remember lives lost and assert their rights. International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, held each December for the past eleven years, is both a somber day and one of agitating for the basic human rights and respect that all people deserve. It’s…
I don’t know if we could jam more into the past couple of days. Normally each one of these would get its own post, but since I am but one woman, we’ll just have to make do. RIP Nelson Mandela: What do you say about one of the most influential people of the 20th century?…
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