Speak is a Young Adult
novel by Laurie Halse Anderson that tells the story of a high school freshman
who was raped by one of the popular boys in her school. Through the novel,
Melinda, the main character experiences ostracism, bullying and harassment for
what happened the night of her rape. She remains silent until the end of the
book, when she finally, slowly, realizes that she might not have been alone in
her situation.
Anderson’s book was banned by some school districts because
of the nature of the subject. Rape is taboo in this country, and blaming the victim
is common, in part because it’s easier to tell someone that they need to try to
live up to an idealized image, rather than to admit that someone has fallen
well short of how they were perceived. This is an even easier trap to fall into
when it deals with an incident of sexual violence. We are all familiar with the
trope that somehow the female victim was asking for it. She dressed wrong,
walked wrong, was drinking too much, was not drinking enough, made eye contact.
As soon as a woman starts acting as an individual, she gets herself into
trouble.
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