To Speak or Not To Speak: Women, Secrets and Sexual Violence

How do women choose to speak or not speak about personal experiences of sexual violence? Rape culture silences victims of sexual violence, and while social movements such as #Beenrapedneverreported (2014) and #Metoo (2018) have worked to undo this silencing, they have succeeded by both facilitating collective speech and acknowledging a woman’s right to keep secrets. If doubt is a common response to speaking out, then for women, speaking cannot be presented as the only solution. Acknowledging that speaking does not necessarily cure, Martine Delvaux explores how women navigate secrecy in order to think about secrets as a radical feminist tool. 

Sponsored by Martha Durkin and YWCA Southern Arizona