To mark the Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence, the teams from the SHaME Project and WOW put together this toolkit with actions, resources and books to read.
Five things everyone can do to be Shameless
- Talk to friends, family, and acquaintances about cultures of sexual humiliation, abuse and consent and listen to what they think are important ways to counter it
- Be creative. Art, literature, poetry, film, performance, theatre and music have the power to change people’s minds
- Celebrate the achievements of girls, women and non-binary people, and explore the ways they (and their allies amongst all genders) have fought for better lives for everyone. Don’t be shy in challenging racism, sexism and all other forms of discrimination when you hear or see it
- Examine how many rape myths and ideas you have been taught to believe. Ask whether you are carrying shame or imposing shame because of them. Work to unlearn the bias you’ve been brought up on
- Write to newspapers or media platforms every time a report contains inferences of victim blame
Five things to emotionally consider
- How can I become more positive about creating a rape-free world?
- What are my spheres of influence and how can I work within them to make a difference?
- Have I been harmed by the sexist culture, and how can I help heal myself before reaching out to others?
- Don’t expect healing to be linear. It isn’t a simple upward curve. Don’t blame yourself further by feeling you ‘ought’ to have dealt with it by now
- Don’t internally minimise your own experience by making it relative to worse examples others have been subjected to. You are entitled to feel a full sense of anger
Shameless! Festival Reading List
Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment by Patricia Hill Collins
Dark Chapter by Winnie M Li
Flood by Clare Shaw
Little You byRachel Nwokoro
The #MeToo Movement by Laurie Collier Hillstrom
Misjustice: How British Law is Failing Women by Helena Kennedy
My Body Keeps Your Secrets by Lucia Osborne-Crowley
On Violence and On Violence Against Women by Jacqueline Rose
Our Bodies Their Battlefields: What War does to Women by Christina Lamb
Rape: A History from the 1860s to the Present by Joanna Bourke
The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivisan
Rough by Rachel Thompson
Screw Consent. A Better Politics of Sexual Justice by Joseph J. Fischel
Sex and Crime (Key Approaches to Criminology) by Alex Fanghanel
Sexual Violence in a Digital Age by Anastasia Powell and Nicola Henry
Supporting Someone After Sexual Assault by Mary Morgan – available to read at missmarymorgan.com
Supporting Trans People of Colour: How to Make Your Practice Inclusive by Sabah Choudrey
Teeth in the Back of My Neck by Monika Radojevic
The Trial / Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates
The Way we Survive: Notes on Rape Culture by Catriona Morton
What is Consent? Why is it Important? And Other Big Questions by Yas Necati