This excerpt from the book CREDIBLE: Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers by Deborah Tuerkheimer explores 19-year-old Mechelle Vinson’s experience of sexual assault and how the world has changed since then.
Tag: Book Excerpt
”Paper Doll Lina”: A Story of Survival and Second Chances
An excerpt from Paper Doll Lina by Robyn Lucas, a survivor of domestic violence. In it, she shares an honest and moving portrait of life as the victim of domestic abuse. The book is a story of survival and second chances.
‘The Suffrage Road Trip’: A Tribute to Two Middle-Aged, Lesbian, Immigrant Suffragists
In “We Demand: The Suffrage Road Trip”, middle-aged lesbian Swedish immigrants Ingeborg Kindstedt and Maria Kindberg advocate for women’s suffrage in 1915.
I fell in love with Ingeborg and Maria when I retraced their route in 2015, and was astonished to find they’d gotten so little recognition for all they did—likely because they were older, working class women who spoke accented English.
Women Athletes Are Still Being Disrespected—On and off the Field
“Raised a Warrior: A Memoir of Soccer, Grit, and Leveling the Playing Field” by Susie Petruccelli is a trailblazing account of triumph in the face of sexism, self-doubt and injury. In it, she gives a remarkable global tour of the women’s soccer world, and presents a stirring call-to-action to secure equal pay and conditions.
Jacinda Ardern’s Rise to Power as “The Strong Woman”—Not the Strongman
Unlike a number of women outliers holding office, Jacinda Ardern hasn’t compromised her personality to suit her career; she hasn’t become “masculinized.” Assertive and effective in politics, she invokes a style that a broad spectrum of people, of both sexes, may seek in coming generations: the strong woman—as opposed to the strongman—who embodies astuteness, along with the ability to bring opposing forces together for a greater goal.
A Memoir Of Family, Caregiving and Redemption: “Some Things Can Be Deleted, Just Often Not The Memory”
Deborah J. Cohan’s ‘Welcome to Wherever We Are: A Memoir of Family, Caregiving, and Redemption’ shows the complexities of unconditional love.
“My dad’s erratic meanness … was all mixed up with his erratic kindness. The erratic nature of it all actually became predictable—predictable erraticness, erratic predictability. … my dad’s behavior was all too often so impossible that I questioned her loyalty and why she stayed; I never really understood them together. Now at 49, I understand it better, through the prism of my own love for my dad, my own loyalty to him, even amid all that went on.”
Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Fight for Freedom
“Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America” by Karen Cook Bell tells the stories of enslaved women who escaped from and resisted slavery during and after the Revolutionary War.
Fighting for Freedom and Abolition from Across the Border
Free-soil havens abroad formed the international stage upon which the fight to end American slavery took place.
Weaving together themes of Black mobility, information circulation, jurisdictional dispute, and transnational abolitionism, ‘Beacons of Liberty’ investigates the individual and collective influence these international free-soil havens had on the American anti-slavery movement over the 50-year period between 1813 and 1863.
Finding Purpose: The Journey of Transitioning While Incarcerated
Coming out as my authentic self while in a violent maximum security prison for men was my only option.
I witnessed the worst misogynistic actions and attitudes of my fellow prisoners, but none of that mattered, because Patricia had to be set free to experience true freedom for the first time in her life.
Creating Cultures of Consent: Teaching and Modeling Consent for the Next Generation
Consent must be expanded in its conceptualization and teaching. Consent education for all is vital, it is not political fodder—it is the foundation for civility, human dignity, decency, and the creation and retention of a safe and equitable society.