Before you start reading, please read the introduction below...
Before the reader embarks on reading these
poems, the editors stress that some content may be found disturbing, troubling
or even distressing. Sexual violence is an emotive subject, and some writing
about rape is as exploitative as the crime itself. Such writing in the context
of politics, the media or literature can constitute a “double violation” for
the rape survivor who lives the experience for a second time: the experience of
“triggering”. Encounters with sexual violence as a subject for literature
demand caution, care and respect, but an interrogation of “rape myths” is
necessary. The poems selected break the silence of the status-quo, which
defines sexual violence as a freak event rather than part of a dominative “rape
culture”. This protest is the beginning of a conversation that seeks
recuperation, healing and redress.
