They’re in no mood to forgive
An entranced audience hunched forward in their seats at USC’s Bovard Auditorium to hear authors Roxane Gay and Laurie Halse Anderson discuss their latest on rape culture. And despite the conversation’s sensitive nature, they laughed. A lot.
“All the time we tell women to forgive — [forget] forgiveness,” quipped Gay, using a different F-word. “I have no interest in [forgiveness]. It’s boring. It’s too easy.”
During a 10:30 a.m. panel at the L.A. Times Festival of Books on April 13, Times columnist Robin Abcarian moderated a discussion with Gay and Halse Anderson about their latest books that deal with the repercussions of rape culture.
Gay edited the 2018 anthology “Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture,” a collection of contributors’ essays exploring the spectrum of survival; Anderson’s 2019 memoir, “Shout,” tells of her own assault as a 13-year-old through free-verse poetry.
Gay’s been crowned a cultural critic for her New York Times bestsellers “Bad Feminist” and “Hunger,” but her latest, she told The Times, isn’t about her at all.
“[The anthology] has nothing to do with me, and has everything to do with the 29 women and men who contributed their work and had really interesting, nuanced things to say about what it means to live in a world where rape culture is a thing,” she said.
Contributors of “Not That Bad” include actress Gabrielle Union, who writes about the “stain” her own sexual assault left; Zoë Medeiros, who examines learning to carry the burden of her assault; and a writer called xTx, who penned the essay “The Ways We Are Taught to Be a Girl” — which, Gay told the panel, is one of her favorites in the collection.
When Abcarian asked why it took both authors so long to disclose their rape, they explained that silence is fueled by the deep-seated shame that rape culture instills in survivors.
“I was just ashamed,” Gay said. “Then I wasn't, thank goodness, and then I wrote a book.”
When it comes to rectifying rape culture, work needs to be done beyond using empowerment slogans on our clothing and bumper stickers, both authors said. It’s about action.
“If you’re going to spend your money that way, then make sure you spend an equal amount of money, and/or time, letting your legislature know that women need to [be heard],” said Halse Anderson, who was wearing a “Got consent?” T-shirt.