This week's #LWLbookclub is dedicated to the 100 Women I Know movement. Started by the amazing Phoebe Montague, the project is not only brave but an incredibly important reminder that it is still a battlefield out there for women who experience and voice sexual violence.
The moving collection, published by Break The Habit, brings together accounts of rape and sexual assault from 100 different women. While each story is maintained in its original form, Montague has curated the collection to make a comment on the catalogue of sexual abuse women experience throughout their lives. The painful pattern she uncovers is visible in both public and private spheres, from childhood to adulthood.
Time and time again, gross entitlement is revealed in men’s actions. Each woman’s words ring loud and clear: the conversation on consent and sexual violence needs to change. Together we need to foster a culture in which both men and women respect and value female sexual experience, hold abusers to account and provide safe platforms that protect and empower the voices that speak out against them. Although 100 Women I know is perhaps one of the most difficult books I’ve read, it’s by far one of the most powerful.
100 Women I Know, 2018. Published by Break The Habit Press.