An Authorial Reflection on The Aftermath’s Castle
This piece is a reflection on the author’s fable, The Aftermath’s Castle, featured in the fourth volume of Songs of Survival. If you’d like to read the fable and the rest of the journal, you can find it here: https://songsofsurvival.survivorstosuperheroes.org/ Trauma has a way of banishing us from the people, places, and things we once […]
The Sound of Freedom and its Misleading Narratives about Youth Trafficking
Approximately 350,000 children are trafficked across international borders each year, according to US State Department data from 2005.1 Due to the datedness of these statistics, the numbers may well be even higher today. Unfortunately, this population, though greatly affected by sexual violence, is not often spoken about. Youth trafficking is the illegal movement of children, […]
Inclusive Sex Education as Sexual Violence Prevention
I was fourteen when I first was sexually assaulted. I had not received any sex education as it pertains to healthy relationships, consent, or participating in medically safe sex, nor any information or insight into what a healthy, loving, and safe sexual relationship looked like. I do not think that my assailant, who was the […]
Sexual Violence and the Police: Understanding the Institution that is Supposed to Protect Us
David Carrick, a former police officer with the Metropolitan Police Department in the UK, was arrested in October of 2021. In January of 2023, he admitted to forty-nine offenses committed over a period of eighteen years, twenty-four of which were counts of rape. In total, Carrick has admitted to over eighty different instances of sexual […]
Daily Triggers: Consuming Netflix Media as a Survivor
I’m a big fan of true crime and thriller shows and movies. Lately, I’ve been more sensitive to triggers like explicit content in these kinds of media. Hence, I rely heavily on the warnings that appear across the screen prior to starting a show or movie. Some producers do a very good job at making […]
Toxic masculinity is the concept of men adhering closely to exaggerated traits that are often characterized as masculine, resulting in negative personal, interpersonal, and societal consequences. Some of these traits include strength, dominance, lack of emotion, and [hetero]sexual virility. Common expressions of toxic masculinity are forms of aggression, like bullying, physical altercations, and domestic and […]
I’m Movin’ Out!
How moving away from my hometown has helped my healing process Returning to my hometown as a survivor has been difficult. It’s where my trauma happened. It’s not just one place that triggers bad memories; it’s also my high school, the Starbucks in the center of town, the side of town where my assailant lived, […]
Women Talking is a film about survival. Written and directed by Sarah Polley (and Oscar-nominated for Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture), it’s based on the book of the same name by Miriam Toews, which is based, in turn, on true events. It follows the women of an isolated Mennonite community that has been rocked by […]
Dress Codes, Then and Now
I never really planned to become an educator, but it’s something I’ve found that I really love. I’m a teaching artist, focusing on theatre, improv, and public speaking. I’m not that much older than the students I teach—around 10 years their senior at most, depending on whether they’re middle or high schoolers. Sometimes the generational […]
I am a twenty-four–year–old special education teacher at a charter high school in Boston, Massachusetts. This piece was written about my first year as a teacher in a live school setting due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In college I had been active in protests and student-led discussions about social issues, and I have always been […]