gender-based violence

Secret CVs: The Slow Violence of Casual Sexism in Academia

by | February 9, 2023

An anonymous whistleblower describes the cumulative effect of sexual harassment in academia.

Photo of sexual assault perpetrator John Seale speaking at google.

Black Candles for Bad Men

by | January 12, 2023

A supermarket worker turns to her ancestors for help stopping sexual harassment.

Black candle against a black backdrop

Flan Desparramado

by | September 27, 2022

A battered woman makes a crucial deal with Dominican Jesus: if she could escape her abuser in order to spend time with her dying mother, she would learn to make flan.

image of flan

Crustaceans

by | June 16, 2022

Gris Muñoz writes a gentle, haunting story about love, lobsters, and abusive men who flaunt their power.

lobster on a plate surrounded by herbs

While in Search of my Latinidad, an Abuser Found Me

by | December 2, 2021

While a writer searched for her Latinidad, a narcissistic abuser exploiting his status as a Cuban dissident found her.

Bolivia Cabinet Awaits Estenssoro

Pocas Pero Locas, Episode 3: “Wassup, M’ija?”

by | June 1, 2021

After a gang unit stopped my 14 year old cousin for driving in a stolen hoopty, they took her to Eastlake Juvenile Hall and handed her over to a new abuser: a cop.

Desiree Gurba

Pocas Pero Locas, Episode 2: Chicken Soup for the Homies’ Soul

by | May 27, 2021

An older homegirl, a hood mom whom Desiree considered her mentor, announced, "I'm jumping you in."

Desiree Gurba

Pocas Pero Locas: An Interpersonal Chicana Essay Where Two Primas Make Sure Shit Gets Told Right

by | May 18, 2021

Myriam Gurba writes about her cousin Desiree, female gangsters, cholas, Mexican bad asses with big hair, and the criminalization of survivors.

Myriam and Desiree Gurba, 1988

My Life at the Dildo Factory

by | April 29, 2021

A story of workplace abuse: “Saftey words are for Pussies!” read the misspelled Roy-Lichtenstein-does-BDSM faux pop art painting displayed in the office of the Anonymous Sex Toy Company. "Safe, Sane, and Consensual" was the company motto. None of the men running the company understood those slogans were incompatible.

Saftey Words Are For Pussies!

Some Workplace Injuries are No Accident

by | April 8, 2021

In the past five months, incidents of women getting threatened, hurt, or killed at their American workplaces appeared on national news. On November 12, the NY Post outed a paramedic as a sex worker, resulting in a barrage of threats. The exposure also jeopardized her job. On January 6, we saw Congresswomen hide in their offices in lockdown while gallows were being erected for them outside their work building. On March 16, we learned that six women in Atlanta were killed when a mass shooter came into their place of work. It’s clear from these incidents that the prestige, location, or salary of a woman’s job has no bearing on how safe she is at work. When society normalizes gender-based violence in the home, it also normalizes gender-based violence in the workplace.

Ambulance in New York

Matt Gaetz: an Extraordinarily Ordinary Creep

by | April 6, 2021

What makes the accusations against Matt Gaetz so plausible is the ubiquity of men like him. Many of them work for state, like my former coworker John William Gunde, a high school teacher arrested for sex with a minor, currently on paid administrative leave.

Matt Gaetz

Writing Ourselves Into Bed

by | March 15, 2021

When battered women "move on," sometimes, we "start over" in a new home that's, in many ways, a reconstitution of our old home. We might not be sharing walls or a roof with the piece of shit who fucked us up but the weapons he used remain. Weapons like a bed. They don't look like weapons. They look like ordinary things. That's what's so frightening about them.

Arcelia

Framing Britney Spears Deepened My Desire for Justin Timberlake to Eat a Bag of Dicks

by | February 11, 2021

No daughter should live in terror of her dad and prolonged fear of a caregiver, especially a masculine one, indicates that someone may be experiencing coercive control, an ongoing form of gendered oppression characterized by a combination of conditions which are documented by Framing Britney Spears.

Jamie and Britney Spears

The Dangers, and Pleasures, of Smoking in Bed

by | February 4, 2021

Mariana Enriquez’s The Dangers of Smoking in Bed joins the ranks of magic realism's finest short story writers with a group of off-kilter tales enlivened by captivating unease.

Smoking in Bed cover

Don’t Call Me Resilient

by | January 14, 2021

Using the word "brave" exalts certain traumatized people as heroic and casts others as failures. All victims of assault deserve to have their experiences dignified with validation, not just those who earn it through "bravery."

AOC / instagram live