Work in progress, in the mean time here’s some clippings from Cindy Crabb’s list of resources.
“a lot of these helped me in some way. some of them I don’t 100% agree with, but still found useful”
web sites
www.girlthrive.com this is a site put together by the woman who wrote Invisible Girls. It has information and resources aimed at teens, but relevant for all.
www.phillyspissed.net This is a group working in Philadelphia against sexual assault in radical communities.
www.theicarusproject.net this is about mental health, not specific to abuse. My friends started this, and I can’t believe what a great resource it has become.
www.fruitiondesign.com/dealwithit this is a journal put out by anti-sexist men in support of the struggle to end sexist oppression, and includes the article Taking the First Step: Suggestions to People Called Out for Abusive Behavior
Generation 5 – this is a group that is working to end childhood sexual abuse within 5 generations.
Radical Mental Health Zine Disto
Soul Speak Out: Share your Survivor Story & Support New York: A Direct Action Survivor Support Network
books
The Courage to Heal, The Courage to Heal Workbook, Allies in Healing. These were the first books I read, and they are huge and intense, but really good. The Courage to Heal made me feel real and not alone. It is sometimes retraumatizing to read it, but it has been and continues to be really helpful.
The Sexual Healing Journey: a Guide for Survivors of Sexual Abuse by Wendy Maltz. I haven’t read this whole book, but it looks really good. It doesn’t have as many personal stories, and has a lot of exercises and advice of things to do to heal. A friend of mine recommended it to me, and I am now recomending it to you!
Invisible Girls: the Truth About Sexual Abuse. A Book For Teen Girls, Young Women, and Everyone Who Cares About Them, by Dr. Patti Feuereisen www.girlthrive.com, by Seal Press
The Survivor’s Guide to Sex: How to Have an Empowered Sex Life after Child Sexual Abuse by Staci Haines. I love this book. Staci Haines is a sex educator and former manager of Good Vibrations. She is trained in somatics – which is a way to heal not just in your brain but also in your body. My therapist is also into somatics, and I’ve found it to have really great tools in dealing with the trauma I feel in my body on a regular daily basis.
Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, by Peter Levine. My therapist recomended this book to me, and I only read the beginning, but it is good, except it has this one really fucked up line where it is talking about the way it feels when trauma is stored in the body, and it says it’s like when you get interupted when you’re about to come, which I think is so fucked up and is something that guys have used against us to make us feel pressured to have sex. It is a really terrible metaphor and is such bullshit, but other than that, the book is really useful. It’s for all kinds of trauma, not just sexual abuse trauma, and talks about ways that trauma gets stored in the body, and ways to work on releasing and healing. It’s about Somatics.
I will Survive: the African American Guide to Healing from Sexual Assault
and Abuse by Lori Robinson. I haven’t seen this book, but it is published by Seal Press, which is a publishing company I trust. Their description is “This valuable resource for survivors – and their families, friends, and communities – walks readers through the processes of emotional, physical, sexual, and spiritual healing and the particular difficulties African Americans face on their journey to recovery”
She Who Was Lost is Remembered: Healing from Incest Through Creativity, ed Louise M. Wisechild. This book also was recomended to me, but I haven’t read it all. It is the personal stories of over 30 women artists, writers, musicians, playwrights and poets, and ways that they used creativity to mend their spirits and their bodies.
When Rabbit Howls, by the Troops For Truddi Chase. This book is really intense and really good. It’s a personal story/novel about discovering that they are multiple personality, written by the people inside..
Sexual Harassment: Women Speak Out, ed Sumrall and Taylor.
Freddy Stories, by Lynda Barry I love this comic book. It is sad, but also beautiful and with hope. I even used the protector spirit that comes to Freddy when I needed something to protect me and couldn’t find anything in my brain.
When Things Fall Apart, by Pema Chodron
Zines
some of these zines I have put info on how to get them, but some of them I am still not sure. Hopefully I’ll have copies for my distro someday
Mend My Dress #1 This zine was written while she was reading The Courage To Heal It is about sexual abuse, her father and stepbrother. also abusive relationship. It is really painful memories. Breaking secrets. $2 Neely, 6653 Carleton Ave S Seattle WA 98108
Brainscan 21: irreconcilable differences
this zine is about psychological abuse in a relationship, written by the girl who wrote Stolen Sharpie Revolution. It reminds me a lot about a relationship I was in once, where I lost what little self esteem I had, and became very isolated and self-doubting and self-hating. It is about manipulation and control and things that a lot of people experience in relationships that often go unspoken, that often are pushed on us, like it is all in our heads. I think this zine is really good and could help people see and talk about ways they’ve been kept under. $3 you can also order it from me at the zine distro page
“i’ve got angels in my head” – 1996 zine about Dissociative Identity Disorder
a friend of mine may be has multiple personality disorder. Sometimes I try and think that we all just have different personalities inside of us, and maybe hers are just more extreme. …The zine helped me to understand that what she is dealing with is really different from me, and that it probably isn’t helpful for me to minimize her experience. That there are ways I can relate my experiences without minimizing hers. Sometime I just want everything to be not so hard. I don’t want to accept that my friends have been through such terrible shit, even though I know they have. I recomend this zine, even if you don’t know anyone with multiple personalitys. It also has things that are good for understanding abuse survivors in general, and helpful things for survivors. – Cindy Crabb
Sexual Abuse, Child Abuse, Rape, Torture, Survival, Violence against Women, Mental Health, Multiple Personality Disorder
brutal. reprinted from Slug and Lettuce. This is an article by Adrienne from from the band Spitboy about someone who she trusted to sleep in bed with her, and who wouldn’t respect her saying no. It is also about a lot of other punk boys she knows have raped women. It is about trying to find the power to deal with all of this, and the frustration that it is not being dealt with in the punk scene. this article may be triggering.
Punk vs Sexism and Rape. This is an article from Profane Existance
these next ones are zine excerpts about street harrassment
a little story about clothes and guns
misc
- Vexed #1
- Rogue Elf #1
- Rad Girlz
- But I’m Not a Rapist
- Radical Slut Dis-covery: building and re-building our sexual selves
- Women’s Self Defense: Stories and Stratgies of Survival
- Sexual Assault in Activist Communities: (activistsagainstsexualasssault@hotmail.com) http://www.peak.uoguelph.ca
- The Struggler
- Guarenteed to Wreck any Party
- Conflagration #8
- Why I’m Here: Thoughts on our collective effort to create space to be safe and breathe in the middle of this broken culture
- Cibola
- This Little Light of Mine
- Thoughts about Community Support and Intimate Violence
- Grrrl Cunt #3
- Women’s Self Defense
- Striped Stockings
- Negrita #3
- Personality Theory
- Baby I’m a Manarchist
- The Unlocking the Silence Workbook
- Indulgence #8
Activist Journeys 