Ever had a philosopher hit on you at a conference and you wish you had some pithy line ready with which to say “not happening”? Go out for drinks after seminar, your colleague is makes an unwelcome move, and you don’t just want to say no, you want to say hell no, but without actually having to use those words? Buzzfeed can now help you with that: a list of philosophical rejection lines here. Below is the Leibniz.
Susan Brison has written a powerful essay on rape for Time. It begins:
One was the best kind of rape, as far as my credibility as a victim was concerned. The other was the worst.
In one, I was 35, on a morning walk in France, when a stranger jumped me from behind, beat, raped, repeatedly choked me into unconsciousness, hit me with a rock, and left me for dead at the bottom of a ravine. I reported it, spoke out about it, and wrote a book about it. My account of what happened was believed, and my assailant, who would have been prosecuted even if I hadn’t pressed charges, was found guilty of rape and attempted murder.
In the other, I was 20, asleep in my dorm room in England, when a man I knew knocked on my door. I let him in and he raped me. I didn’t tell anyone. Afterwards, I stopped going to classes and, when I didn’t get my period for two months, I thought I was pregnant and became suicidal. I never reported it, told no one about it until many years later, and, even then, didn’t call what happened “rape.” I didn’t talk about it publicly until three years ago, and haven’t published anything about it until now.
Go read the whole thing!
And if you’re on twitter, consider discussing the article using the hashtags #WhyIStayedSilent and #WhyISpokeOut. The hashtags #WhyIStayed and #WhyILeft have created a powerful conversation on twitter for survivors of relationship violence, and Susan is hoping that a parallel conversation can begin for survivors of rape.
Feminist Philosophers 