Way back in 2014, which right now seems like a lifetime ago and in a different world, TLT hosted the Sexual Violence in YA Lit Project. As part of this project, author and teacher Eric Devine wrote a post about teaching the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson to his high school students. In the midst of the #MeToo movement and Kavanaugh hearings, author Laurie Halse Anderson and Eric Devine revisit this post and had a discussion on NPR about Speak, teens, and sexual violence. You can listen to that discussion here: https://www.npr.org/2018/09/30/653160035/teaching-high-school-students-about-sexual-assault-through-literature.
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So The Teen recently read both MOXIE by @jenmathieu and THE NOWHERE GIRLS by Amy Reed. She loved them both. AND she told me
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@jenmathieu there is a boy at school who always touches her in creepy ways. Massaging her shoulders. Poking her belly. And it made her uncomfortable
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@jenmathieu but she thought it was just her being weird. But she read the books and declared, I'M DRAWING PERSONAL BOUNDARIES and telling this guy
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@jenmathieu that he can't touch me without my permission. Which, hell yes! And these important books helped her realize this & empowered her. Thank you!
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@jenmathieu Also, every girl. Every. Single. One. Will deal with this at some point. And speaking up is hard & can be costly. Careers, reputation, etc
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@jenmathieu And they always try to make it seem innocent but they are definitely not. They are trying to satisfy personal needs - power, thrills - at
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@jenmathieu the expense and comfort of another. And when girls speak up, they are ungrateful bitches, or manipulative, or vindictive. We as a society
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@jenmathieu need to change the narrative and call it what it is and recognize it as a non consensual violation of another person.
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@jenmathieu It's so normalized for girls she - who tells me everything - didn't even think to come talk to me about this. It's just the way things are.
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@jenmathieu And I obviously think every collection should have and everyone should read BOTH Moxie and The Nowhere Girls. Yes, both of them. We need
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@jenmathieu the message repeated and reinforced in multiple ways to help break down rape culture and change the discourse. Get them both. The end.
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