Believe Me

From two leading, agenda-setting feminist editors, Believe Me brings readers into the current landscape of the anti-sexual violence movement--and outlines how believing women is the critical foundation for future progress. Essays include Jessica Valenti writing about how a woman's word has never been enough in our country, giving context to the question of why we don't believe women. Jaclyn Friedman draws that idea out further, articulating why it matters that women are believed about sexual violence - because doing so finally grants us bodily sovereignty, impacting whether we can be trusted about pain, about pleasure, about reproduction and beyond. Other top-tier contributors touch on: how race and class impact which kinds of women are believed; the ways that women's behaviour (what they wear, what they were drinking) trumps their testimony and words; how believing white women has harmed communities of colour; visions of masculinity that aren't dependent on undermining women. Part taking stock of recent feminist movements, part visions for a way forward, Believe Me has the potential to spark real change and to appeal to the countless men and women who have been engaging with #metoo and looking to feminist leadership for next steps.