The Pixel Project Selection 2018: 16 Of The Pixel Project’s Best Interview Articles

Blogging is one of the major pillars of our social media-driven awareness-raising and educational work. More than any other social media platforms that we use, blogging empowers us to present in-depth articles, op-eds, and interviews that go beyond the soundbites. As we grew as an anti-VAW organisation, we have gradually focused our blogging efforts on interviews to help activists, allies, and survivors tell their stories and share their ideas with others first-hand.

In 2018, we marched on with our annual interview-format blogging campaigns:

  • Our long-running monthly Inspirational Interview series highlighting the excellent but little-known work of many anti-VAW activists and organisations from around the world
  • Our 4th annual Survivors Stories series which is a safe, structured platform for survivors of all forms of VAW to share their experiences as well as encouragement and ideas for women who are still facing the violence.
  • Our 5th 30 For 30 Father’s Day series which is a platform for dads worldwide to speak out about sexism, misogyny, and violence against women in the gaming community and industry.

Together, these interviews form an inspirational tapestry of ideas, stories, and calls-to-action from remarkable individuals, communities, and allies that are at the front lines of bringing the change that is so desperately needed to end VAW.

If you have missed any of our blog interview campaigns this year or are new to The Pixel Project’s work, this selection of this year’s 16 best Pixel Project blog interview articles of 2018 will be a great starting point. We hope that the stories we shared motivate you to join the effort to end VAW.

It’s time to stop violence against women. Together.

Written and compiled by Regina Yau. Introduction by Regina Yau.

____________________________________________________________________

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #1: Inspirational Interview – Dr Angela Jay, Australia

Dr Angela Jay has a master’s degree in reproductive medicine and is an advocate for White Ribbon Australia, a campaign battling violence against women. Angela is also a personal survivor of violence against women, escaping attempted murder at the hands of a man she briefly dated. She has had the honour of speaking at several events addressing domestic violence, including the 2017 White Ribbon Breakfast in Australia’s Parliament, engaging the nation’s leaders about the significance of VAW in the Australian community. When speaking to The Pixel Project about the role of healthcare providers such as doctors in tackling VAW, she said: “Our role to support victims and survivors of VAW extends well beyond simply providing medical treatment. When faced with a disclosure of violence or abuse, it is vital to respond appropriately and with an empathetic, non-judgmental attitude. […] I believe it is also a doctor’s duty to consider safety planning and assist with referrals to police, specialised domestic violence services, legal aid, and other support agencies when accepted. In some circumstances, particularly when children are involved, health professionals may be obligated by local mandatory reporting requirements to involve Community Services to help ensure safety and well-being.

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #2: 30 For 30 Father’s Day Interview – Christopher Golden, United States of America

Christopher Golden and his wife Connie are the parents of Nicholas (24), Daniel (22), and Lily (15), all of whom are profoundly unimpressed with their New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning dad, whose novels include Ararat, Snowblind, Dead Ringers, Of Saints and Shadows, Strangewood and many others. He is also an editor, screenwriter, speaker, teacher, comic book writer and podcaster, among many other things. When talking about the role of dads in helping to stop VAW, he said: “We must lead by example. We must speak in the face of injustice. Elevate and amplify the voices of women instead of speaking for them. Show boys and young men that you respect a woman’s right to be her own champion. Listen to her, and make sure they do as well. Define her by her ideas and accomplishments and hopes and quirks, not by her hair or her weight or her shape. Draw attention to the way in which society commodifies women’s appearance and how detrimental that is to individual and national psychology. Don’t stay silent when others spout ignorance. Redefine manhood, and let the women in your life create their own definition of what it means to be a woman.” Christopher is also a Read For Pixels author and has spoken more extensively about the role of men and boys in stopping VAW via his Read For Pixels Google Hangout.

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #3: 30 For 30 Father’s Day Interview – Dan Wells, United States of America

New York Times bestselling author Dan Wells is best known for his horror series I Am Not a Serial Killer, of which the first book is now an award-winning movie through IFC Midnight. His other novels include The Hollow City, Extreme Makeover, and two science fiction series: Partials and Mirador. He co-hosts the Hugo-winning podcast for aspiring writers called Writing Excuses. He has written for television and the stage and he writes short fiction and game fiction. Dan lives in northern Utah with his wife, six children, and more than 400 board games. When talking about the role of dads in helping to stop VAW, he said: “The first thing we do is to always model good behavior. My sons have never seen me mistreat, yell at, strike or otherwise abuse my wife or my daughters, and they never will. They HAVE seen me love them, respect them and treat them like equal partners in our family and our lives.” Dan is also a Read For Pixels author and has spoken more extensively about the role of men and boys in stopping VAW via his Read For Pixels Google Hangout.

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #4: Read For Pixels Interview – Faith Hunter, United States of America

New York Times bestselling author Faith Hunter writes three series: the Jane Yellowrock series, dark urban fantasy novels featuring Jane, a Cherokee Skinwalker; the Rogue Mage novels, a dark, urban fantasy/post apocalyptic series and role playing game featuring Thorn St. Croix; and the Soulwood series featuring Nell Nicholson Ingram. During her Read For Pixels interview, Faith said: “I worked in a hospital lab for 40 years. I was part of the evidence collection for rape victims. It was horrible. Utterly horrible, what victims have to go through, even after an assault. Throughout my entire life, I’ve seen abusive relationships, and not just abusive men, but abusive women too. It’s a human problem, a victim problem, not just a women’s problem. That said, I have female writer friends who have suffered abuse and who have been dragged through the dirt, vilified, threatened, and abused again when they speak up against their accusers in the publishing arena. It’s my job as a human being to stand with them when they name names and call the guilty accountable. It’s all our jobs. We have to get off our asses and fight to be human. Together.”

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #5: Read For Pixels Interview – Ian Whates, United Kingdom

Ian Whates is the author of seven novels, the co-author of two more, and editor of thirty-odd anthologies. Seventy of his short stories have appeared in various venues and his work has been shortlisted for the Philip K Dick Award and twice for the BSFA Awards. In 2006, Ian founded award-winning independent publisher NewCon Press by accident. In his Read For Pixels interview, he talked about what publishers can do to stop VAW, saying: “Publishers, particularly when they are as niche as my own, have very limited influence on the world, but that’s not the same as having no influence. There is an onus on us to behave responsibly in selecting what we publish; by ensuring that unacceptable behaviour is either omitted entirely or shown to be unacceptable and portrayed in a light that vilifies both the act and those who resort to it, we can make a difference. A very small difference perhaps – a drop in the ocean – but the cumulative effect of enough drops over time can contribute to change.”

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #6: Inspirational Interview – Jaf Shah, United Kingdom

Jaf Shah is the executive director of Acid Survivors Trust International. He started as a programme manager working on projects in South Africa for a charity whose patrons included Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. He has implemented multiple British government- and UN-supported projects. He was an award panelist for Stars Foundation Impact Awards, which awards grants to not-for-profits that evidence impact in delivering protection and health of children in low-income countries. When speaking about what can be done to end VAW, he said: “I believe to bring about an end to violence against women requires a major change in attitudes and behavior across all levels of society, at an individual, family and community level. However we have a responsibility to challenge government and states to take a leading role in its obligation to end violence against women. This means holding governments to account by passing laws, enforcing laws and running wide scale educational programmes from an early age address violence against women.”

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #7: 30 For 30 Father’s Day Interview – Jim C. Hines, United States of America

Jim C. Hines is an author and stay-at-home dad to his 12-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter. His published science fiction and fantasy books include the Goblin trilogy, the Princess series, the Magic ex Libris books, and his new novel Terminal Alliance, the first in a trilogy about space janitors. In his interview with The Pixel Project, he said: “I’ve tried to teach both of my children about consent in various ways over the years. Letting them know they have the right to say no, even to things like being tickled or hugged or photographed. Emphasising that they have to respect when other people say no as well.  In terms of helping the next generation become aware of and step up to try to stop violence against women, I feel like my job is to educate them about the problem. Particularly for guys, it’s so easy to close our eyes and pretend the problem doesn’t exist.” Jim is also a Read For Pixels author and has spoken more extensively about the role of men and boys in stopping VAW via his Read For Pixels Google Hangout.

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #8: Survivor Stories Interview – Julie Owens, United States of America

After surviving domestic violence, Julie Owens left her work in special education to develop domestic violence hospital trainings, an ER crisis team, and a transitional shelter. She later directed domestic violence trauma research at the National Center for PTSD, coordinated domestic violence efforts in a mental health system, counseled substance using victims, and oversaw victim service agencies. When talking about how communities can end VAW, she said: “We need a major paradigm shift in the world, away from domination and coercive control of women by men, to full gender equality and true partnership. Without this, the abuse of women will never stop. We will just be putting Band-Aids on the wounds – treating the symptoms, not getting at the root of the problem, which is the historical domination of women by men. It took me years to understand this, but this is what underpins all violence against women. Achieving gender equality and true partnership will free both women and men, and children, to live fully and freely in peace. It will bring healing to the world and to our planet.”

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #9: Survivor Stories Interview – Leah Zeiger, United States of America

Leah Zeiger is a dancer, activist, writer, and survivor. She founded The Sunflower Project, an organisation that uses dance and other forms of art to help heal survivors of gender based violence. She is the co-director of the documentary Untold – a film about her experience with abuse. In her interview with us, she talks about the importance of consent and sex education as part of eradicating rape culture: “We need sex education, we need relationship education, we need parents to explicitly tell their children what rape is and explain the nuances of consent. We need to stop pretending like we aren’t hurting our children by declining them knowledge. We need to own up to the reality that our children will face, and then we need to actually prepare them for it.”

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #10: Inspirational Interview – Naomi Mwaura, Kenya

Naomi Mwaura, the founder of Kenya’s Flone Initiative which focuses on addressing violence against women in Kenya including street harassment and workplace harassment in the public transportation industry. She is among seven African women to be named as “BBC 100 Inspirational and Influential Women” in 2017. When speaking about how men and boys can help stop VAW, she said: “We can help men and boys do so by supporting them in identifying when violence against women and girls is being perpetrated and actively responding by strongly condemning perpetrators of violence. An operator who previously incited others against young women he thought were “indecent” now mobilises other male operators to attend the Usalama wa Uma training, and educates others on the need to respect female clients.”

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #11: Inspirational Interview – Noorjahan Akbar, Afghanistan

Noorjahan Akbar is an outspoken women right’s advocate and author from Afghanistan. She has worked with several Afghan and global organisations focusing on women’s empowerment and ending gender-based violence and led nation-wide campaigns and protests in defense of human rights. She currently runs Free Women Writers, a collective of activists and writers in Afghanistan and the diaspora advocating for gender equality and social justice. Speaking about how individuals and communities worldwide can support efforts to end VAW, she suggested that the general public “amplify the voices of survivors and donate to organisations that work on this issue. Women’s rights organisations are still among the least funded organisations in the world. This often leads to women’s organisations competing over little resources instead of working together to fight challenges. Let’s work together to change this. Working for women’s rights is dangerous, tiring, and long term. We can’t expect activists to continue to put their mental health and well-being and their livelihoods on the line in order for women to have more rights. If you can donate 5 dollars do it. Every small donation goes a long way because most women’s rights organisations are frugal in resources. Do your research and support organisations that have brought about change in your local community as well as around the world.”

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #12: 30 For 30 Father’s Day Interview – Paul Tremblay, United States of America  

Paul Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book awards and is the author of The Cabin at the End of the World, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, and The Little Sleep. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the Shirley Jackson Awards, and his essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly.com, and numerous “year’s best” anthologies. When speaking about dads stopping VAW, he said: “I have talks with my son about women and dating, and empathy for others in general. Every father-son relationship is different and there’s always going to be some level of discomfort when talking about difficult subjects, but (and I’m saying this here to remind myself) you should push through that discomfort and make sure there’s an ongoing dialogue. I listen to what he has to say in response while hopefully teaching him to listen to the women in (and out) of his life.” Paul is also a Read For Pixels author and has spoken more extensively about the role of men and boys in stopping VAW via his Read For Pixels Google Hangout.

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #13: Inspirational Interview, Susan Jack, Scotland

Susan Jack trained as a nurse at The Western Infirmary and then completed a degree in history and social policy at the University of Glasgow. Following a year of work in the social policy department, Susan took up her post as a training & development worker with Glasgow Women’s Aid in 2002 where she has been working to stop VAW until today. When speaking about the role of men and boys in stopping VAW, she said: “We really need to hear their voices speaking out against violence. Most men are not abusers and we need to hear from them. Language and attitudes feed into violence against women, so jokes about rape and ‘banter’ have serious consequences. Boys and men should feel able to call out their peers on such behaviour and language. This isn’t necessarily easy, but would have a positive impact.”

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #14: Inspirational Interview – Suzanne Dubus, United States of America

Suzanne C. Dubus joined the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center in 1995 and has served as its CEO since 1998. A survivor of domestic violence, she understands what it means to be inside an abusive relationship. That perspective and her innovative vision have driven her to revolutionise the paradigm of domestic violence (DV) work on a national scale. During her interview with The Pixel Project, she talked about the ways boys and men can help to end VAW, saying: “Boys and men have the opportunity to help in many ways! The first is to educate themselves on the issue of male privilege, patriarchy and sexism and do their own work about defining what kind of man they want to be. Second, speak out against abuse when you see it and hear it. Third, partner with the women and girls and organisations already doing this work and ask what is needed.”

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #15: Survivor Stories Interview – Traci Powell, United States of America

Traci Powell is a nurse practitioner who has cared for critically ill newborns for over 20 years. As a survivor of child sexual abuse, she never told anyone what happened to her until she began her recovery journey in 2014. Understanding the importance of survivor connection in healing, Traci founded Voices in the Silence to empower survivors of sexual abuse to transform and break free from the past through education and peer support. When talking about how society can stop VAW, she said: “The sad truth is this issue is not going to go away for a very long time, if ever. Perpetrators live among us. We need to teach our daughters about appropriate touch and make sure they know it is safe to tell, even if someone tells them not to. We need to teach our sons to be respectful of women. We need to teach parents that paedophiles don’t come in monster costumes and the signs of grooming by a perpetrator. Most of them come in the form of a friendly coach, teacher, neighbour, uncle or other close relationship. We need to teach our young women how to stay safe.”

 

Pixel Project Blog Interview Selection #16: Inspirational Interview – Urmilla Pullat, India

Urmilla Pullat is a lawyer and researcher who runs the India desk for the Asian Human Rights Commission (Hong Kong). Currently seconded to India, she works on rule of law and human rights issues intersecting with criminal justice reform, with a focus on police torture and custodial violence. Urmilla runs the website project How Revealing, an online repository of experiences of gender-based violence, and is working to contribute toward changing the narrative surrounding gender justice and sexual assault, mainly in India. When talking about her anti-VAW activism, Urmilla said: “The current solution to gender disparity and gender-based violence is significantly limited because it is seen as a women’s issue. The main challenge is to reframe it, to contribute towards changing the narrative to make it everyone’s issue. […] What I have learnt is that it is important to keep running campaigns around specific areas of sexual violence, to nudge people into knowing its relevance for them, and that constant media engagement is necessary and crucial to keep normalising the act of disclosure and seeking support.”

 

____________________________________________________________________

Photo Credits:

  1. Dr Angela Jay – Courtesy of RANZCOG
  2. Christopher Golden – Courtesy of Christopher Golden
  3. Dan Wells – Courtesy of Dan Wells
  4. Faith Hunter – Courtesy of Faith Hunter
  5. Ian Whates – Courtesy of Ian Whates
  6. Jaf Shah – Courtesy of Acid Survivors Trust International
  7. Jim C. Hines – Courtesy of Jim C. Hines
  8. Julie Owens – Courtesy of Julie Owens
  9. Leah Zeigler – Courtesy of Leah Zeigler
  10. Naomi Mwaura – Courtesy of the Flone Initiative
  11. Noorjahan Akbar – Courtesy of Free Women Writers
  12. Paul Tremblay – Courtesy of Paul Tremblay
  13. Susan Jack – Courtesy of Glasgow Women’s Aid
  14. Suzanne Dubus – Courtesy of the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center
  15. Traci Powell – Courtesy of Traci Powell
  16. Urmilla Pullat – Courtesy of Urmilla Pullat

 

The Pixel Project Selection 2018: 16 Striking Campaigns for the Cause to End Violence Against Women

 

Every year, we at The Pixel Project come across a wide variety of innovative and powerful campaigns tackling Violence Against Women (VAW) by our fellow activists and non-profits from around the globe, and 2018 is no exception. While some campaigns worked to shine a light on violence against the most marginalised groups of women, others took forward the Me Too movement in their own unique way.

We acknowledge that anti-VAW campaigners put themselves in perilous situations to advocate for the safety of others and we are immeasurably grateful for their bravery. From women marching the streets to women combating harassment online, each and every action, large or small, counts.

So today, in honour of all VAW activists, non-profits and grassroots groups who toil in such thankless situations to bring about positive change to the lives of women and girls facing violence, we present 16 of the most striking campaigns/programmes we have come across in the last year of our work.

What these campaigns have in common are:

  • The built-in “water-cooler” factor that gets the community buzzing about the campaign and, by extension, the issue of VAW.
  • A good sense of what works in and for the culture and community where the activist/nonprofit/grassroots group is trying to effect change.

We hope that these campaigns and initiatives inspire you to take action and get on board the cause to end VAW.

It’s time to stop violence against women. Together.

Introduction by Regina Yau. Written and compiled by Rubina Singh

____________________________________________________________________

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #1: #Abaya_Insideout – Saudi Arabia

Women in Saudi Arabia have been protesting against the fact that they are expected to wear an abaya and hijab in public. After the relaxation of driving rules a while ago, women were campaigning for reform of the forceful dress code as well. A recent Twitter campaign using the hashtag “#Abaya_Insideout” became a form of peaceful protest against this regulation where women are photographing themselves wearing inside out abayas.

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #2: All-Women Cycle Rallies – Pakistan

In an effort to protest against street harassment and exercise their right to occupy public spaces, some women in Pakistan carried out women-only cycle rallies across various cities in the country. “Our strategy is simply to be visible in public spaces,” said Meher Bano of Girls at Dhabas, a feminist group that organised the races after a woman from Lahore was pushed off her bicycle by a group of men last year for not responding to catcalls. 

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #3: Be Frank – The Netherlands

Two Dutch filmmakers have created a video campaign highlighting the high instances of VAW in mainstream pornography. Damayanti Dipayana and Camilla Borel-Rinkes shared a summary of a sexual encounter and asked men if it was a porn scene or a personal story about sexual assault. In their film, Be Frank, they showthe how much of the porn available online showcases aggression and violence towards women and how men learn to normalise abusive experiences through these films.

 Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #4: Campaign against Hidden Camera Pornography – South Korea

Many women are unknowingly filmed in public spaces in South Korea by hidden or spy cameras.Porn films showcase footage of women on toilets, on escalators or stairs, hotel rooms and various other seemingly private spaces. Tired of living in constant fear of being filmed, more than 20,000 women came together in Seoul to protest against this practice and urge the government to take stringent action.

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #5: Campaign to end ‘sexual cleansing’ of widows – Kenya

A custom in Kenya and some other African nations believes that widows are impure and they must be cleansed after their husbands’ death. The ‘cleansing’ involves having sex with a male relative or stranger among other humiliating practices such as shaving the widow’s head and burning her clothes. Widow abuse is hardly talked about but organisations such as the Rona Foundation are working to change that with many international agencies covering their struggles.

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #6: Counting Dead Women – Australia

Counting Dead Women is an initiative of the organisation Destroy the Joint which aims to research, record and publish every reported incident of a woman’s death due to VAW. Through this campaign, they are bringing many cases of femicide to light in Australia as well as providing helpful resources to women who are facing VAW. As of November 2018, they have recorded 62 women’s deaths as being a direct cause of VAW.

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #7: I Will End FGM – Across Africa

The Girl Generation along with many other organisations and youth groups from various African nations initiated a campaign against FGM across the continent. Using the hashtags “#EndFGM” and “#IHaveSpoken”, the campaign hopes to spark a million conversations around FGM to break the silence about this heinous practice.

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #8: Let Her Work – Brazil

Using the hashtag “#LetHerWork” or “#DeixaElaTrabalhar”, Brazilian sports journalists ran a campaign to bring attention to the sexual harassment and abuse they deal with during work. The campaign demands respect and a harassment-free work experience for women sports journalists.

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #9: List of Known Sexual Harassers in Academia – United States of America

Julie Libarkin, a professor at Michigan State University, has compiled a list of more than 700 cases of sexual misconduct in academia. Talking about why she started the database, Libarking said, “I think one of the biggest problems with sexual misconduct is that there’s no way to know if anyone experienced that before you…There’s really no way to find out this information. I want people to be able to look at these names”.

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #10: Me Too India – India

What started last year with Raya Sarkar’s list of sexual harassment accused became an even bigger movement across India this year. Stories have emerged from the worlds of film, journalism, academics, politics, advertising, design, art and many others. The impact of these stories has led to some positive change where many influential men accused of sexual harassment have stepped down from their professional posts, including former Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar.

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #11: #Mitu – China

Despite strict internet censorship, women in China led their own version of the Me Too movement. Using the hashtag “#Mitu” which means ‘rice bunny’ and “#Woyeshi”, which means ‘me too’, Chinese women shared their stories about VAW without garnering the wrath of the censors. The stories have already managed to bring about some change with new policies being introduced to curb sexual harassment in university campuses.

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #12: The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Database – Canada and United States of America

Annita Lucchesi, a descendant of the Cheyenne Tribe, has started a database that collates information about missing and murdered indigenous girls, women and two spirit people in Canada and the USA from 1900 to the present. Talking about the need for such a database, Lucchesi said, “I found that there really wasn’t any comprehensive information on this issue. And there was no number that we could all agree on. There was no research bringing together both countries or doing a longer historical look. There were lists online and projects that had been put together, but none of them matched.

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #13: The Not-So-Beautiful Game – United Kingdom

In a hard-hitting campaign, UK’s National Centre of Domestic Violence wanted to highlight the increase in incidents of domestic violence during sporting events. Their reports show that domestic violence increases irrespective of whether England wins or loses. There is a 38% increase in domestic violence reports when England loses a match and a 26% increase when England wins or draws. Their campaign depicted the flags of countries, such as England, Japan and Switzerland, on the faces of battered women, and released the visuals on the day of the country’s match during the World Cup.

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #14: This is Not Consent – Ireland

In the rape trial of a 27-year-old man in Ireland, the 17-year-old victim’s lacy underwear was cited as proof of consent  , leading to the acquittal of the accused. Protests erupted across the nation using the hashtag “#Thisisnotconsent”, where women brought thongs and lacy undergarments to the streets and social media to protest against persistent victim blaming in cases of VAW. Even the Irish MP Ruth Coppinger joined the protests and brought a thong to Parliament.

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #15: Warning systems in airport toilets to curb FGM – United Kingdom

To provide support to possible victims of forced marriages, female genital mutilation (FGM), child sexual abuse, and other forms of VAW, the Birmingham Airport authorities in the UK have installed a colour coded sticker system in women’s toilet cubicles. Women who enter the cubicle can call the number mentioned on the sticker and get help. The colour of the sticker in each cubicle is different, allowing authorities to identify the correct cubicle and offer support.

Striking Anti-VAW Campaign #16: Women’s Day Strike – Spain

More than 5 million women gathered to protest against gender inequality, discrimination, and VAW on International Women’s Day 2018 in Spain. The protest involved a 24-hour strike where women abstained from doing any work under the slogan, “If we stop, the world stops”. Many prominent women supported the strike, including the Mayors of Madrid and Barcelona.

____________________________________________________________________

All pictures used are Creative Commons images (from top to bottom):

The Pixel Project Selection 2018: 16 Authors Saying NO To Violence Against Women

Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labelled: “This could change your life.” — Helen Exley

Violence against women (VAW) is a prevalent and entrenched part of countless societies around the world but it is still considered a taboo topic even, to a certain extent, in developed and first-world communities. Pop culture media, therefore is invaluable in raising awareness, and promoting and prompting advocacy against VAW, doing much to break the silence.

From Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird to J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series to Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, popular authors and their stories have been instrumental in planting ideas, triggering thoughtful water-cooler discussions, and providing food for thought for communities. And in the age of geek culture and social media, bestselling authors wield influence beyond just their books as they are able to directly communicate with their readers and fans via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and other social media channels.

The Pixel Project’s Read For Pixels campaign was first launched in September 2014 in recognition of the longstanding power of books to shape cultural ideas and influence the direction of history. Since then, the campaign has gone from strength to strength. To date, over 100 award-winning bestselling authors from genres as diverse as Science Fiction, Fantasy, Crime, Thrillers, Mystery, Chick Lit, Romance and Horror have participated in various Read For Pixels campaigns and initiatives, raising more than $58,000 for the cause to end VAW to date.

In this article, we honour 16 award-winning bestselling authors from our 2017 and 2018 Read For Pixels campaigns. They hail from many genres, including Comics, Horror, Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult, Urban Fantasy and Science Fiction. Many of them are global celebrities with strong fan followings, all are well respected in their countries or genres. Some are up-and-coming stars who have decided to use their talents for good. It is the movement to end VAW that unites and inspires them and we hope that all of them will continue to work with the movement in years to come.

To learn more about each author and their books, click on the author’s name.

To learn more about what each author has to say about violence against women, click on their quote to be taken to the YouTube video of their Read For Pixels Google Hangout or their blog articles.

Written and compiled by Regina Yau, with Google Hangout transcriptions by Bernardo Rosa Rodriguez, Denishia Rajendran, and Melissa Ruth Arul.

NOTE: 25 new authors participated this year and those not featured in this year’s list will be featured in next year’s list.

______________________________________________________________________

Author Against VAW 1: Alafair Burke

Alafair Burke is the New York Times bestselling author of eleven novels, including the standalone thrillers The Ex, Long Gone and If You Were Here, and the Ellie Hatcher series: All Day and a Night, Never Tell, 212, Angel’s Tip, and Dead Connection. She is also the co-author of the Under Suspicion series with Mary Higgins Clark. A former prosecutor, she is now a professor of criminal law and lives in Manhattan. When talking about the failure of the justice system to effectively address VAW, she said: “I have very conflicted ideas about this because what I want to say is that the system needs to listen more. Women know when they are in danger. The system should listen to them when they say ‘for you to prosecute this case is going to put me in danger or for me to get a restraining order is going to make things worse’. It’s an odd analogy to make but sometimes you know the way to get your job done is to smile and keep your head down. And sometimes somebody knows if ‘I get a restraining order or I sign that complaint, it’s going to be worse’ and the system needs to take that into account. The problem is when the system used to take that into account, women would get pressured not to prosecute and to not get a restraining order and the police would not respond and they would just treat it as a purely private matter.”

Authors Against VAW 2: Ann Aguirre

Ann Aguirre is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling author; before she began writing full time, she was a clown, a clerk, a voice actress, and a saviour of stray kittens. She lives in sunny Mexico with her husband, children, and various pets. She writes all kinds of genre fiction for adults and teens. Ann is very outspoken about ending VAW and when talking about the role of parents in helping get rid of toxic masculinity and male violence, she said: “I think the most important thing is shifting the focus of rape culture because up till now it’s been teaching girls how to avoid getting raped and that is so backward. I mean when you think about it, you’re telling your ten-year-old that if anyone touches you inappropriately this is what you should do and don’t be afraid […] But really we should be having conversations with our sons and telling them that no matter how pretty you think she is, you absolutely do not have the right to touch her without permission. And you do not have the right to get angry if she doesn’t like you or she doesn’t respond when you flirt with her. What we need to be doing is educating our boys so as to eradicate the cult of toxic masculinity. I think it is terrible that little girls grow up in fear and boys are almost given a free pass.”

Authors Against VAW 3: Beth Cato

Nebula-nominated Beth Cato is the author of the Clockwork Dagger duology and the new Blood of Earth trilogy from Harper Voyager. Her newest novel is Call of Fire. She’s a Hanford, California native transplanted to the Arizona desert, where she lives with her husband and son. When Beth joined the Read For Pixels campaign in 2018, she said: “I support The Pixel Project because this is a very personal topic. I’m a woman. I’m friends with many other women and I hate that we are still at a point where this still exists. I read many historical books as part of my research and I think “oh my goodness 100 years ago why did we treat people like that?” and think “at least 100 years have passed and we’ve evolved past that”. And then I go on Twitter and go “things haven’t changed”. Women are still abused and constrained. And it needs to stop. As an author I feel the responsibility to be part of that change and to write about women who are strong, and not in the stereotypical way.”

Authors Against VAW 4: Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson’s novels include the Mistborn books, The Stormlight Archive — which includes his most recent instant bestseller Oathbringer The Rithmatist and Steelheart, among others. He completed the final volumes of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and is published in 35 languages. Brandon also teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University. Brandon had a lot to say about VAW and teaching boys and young men to respect women. When chatting about the latter, he pointed out: “When someone expresses their opinion and their emotions and the experience they’ve had, your response is not to say “no”. You can say “well my experience has been this” and that furthers the conversation. But to say “no, you’re wrong about your own experience”? I think that this is something that we all as a culture need to start teaching people to pay attention to.” He also unequivocally had this to say about using VAW as a trope in writing: “Using VAW specifically because they are women as a main plot in your stories is not just creating bad stereotypes, it is oftentimes lazy writing.”

Author Against VAW 5: Carrie Vaughn

Carrie Vaughn is the New York Time Bestselling author of more than twenty novels and over eighty short stories. She’s best known for the Kitty Norville urban fantasy series about a werewolf who hosts a talk radio advice show for supernatural beings — the series includes fourteen novels and a collection of short stories — and the superhero novels in the Golden Age saga. She has been nominated for a Hugo Award, various RT Reviewer Choice Awards — winning for Best First Mystery for Kitty and The Midnight Hour — and won the 2011 WSFA Small Press award for best short story for Amaryllis. Carrie joined the Read For Pixels campaign in March 2018 to speak out about violence against women. She said: “I think so much of the issue is raising awareness. If people don’t know that the issue is there, it’s an easy topic to ignore. It’s easy to think that we’ve already overcome this and it’s not our problem. [We can change things by] talking about it and raising awareness that this is a thing that happens and that this is something that we need to change… and providing tools ford how to stop it, and specially how to prevent it, I think that’s going to be the thing as well.”

Authors Against VAW 6: Dana Cameron

Whether writing SF/F/H, noir, historical fiction, thriller, or traditional mystery, Dana Cameron draws from her expertise in archaeology. Her work has won multiple Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Awards and earned an Edgar Award nomination. Her Emma Fielding mysteries was optioned by Muse Entertainment; Site Unseen debuted in 2017 (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel). When chatting with The Pixel Project about stopping violence against women, Dana said: “Even when violence against women is not legal or not upheld by society and religious practices, it can still happen and it’s often hidden. And I think that the more we speak out about it, as women, as writers, as creative people, the more we can expose it. Because when women thrive, families do better and when families do better, the communities are stronger. And it’s such a simple mathematical thing. If you’re able to curtail and eventually stop violence against women, it’s going to make the whole world better, it’s going to make the communities better and it’s just going to feed off from that. By using the voices we have, as writers, as public people, to bring it to people’s attention, that’s the best way we have to start the conversation that will change things.”

Authors Against VAW 7: David D. Levine

David D. Levine is the author of Andre Norton Award winning novel Arabella of Mars (Tor 2016), sequel Arabella and the Battle of Venus (Tor 2017), and over fifty SF and fantasy stories. His story Tk’Tk’Tk won a Hugo, and he has been shortlisted for awards including the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell, and Sturgeon. His Stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction Analog Science Fiction, F&SF, Tor.com, numerous Year’s Best anthologies, and his own award-winning collection Space Magic. When discussing the issue of consent with The Pixel Project, David said: “As a society we have a done a terrible job of educating our young about consent. Only within the past 5-10 years have we really started talking especially to young men about what consent really means. It isn’t this legalistic thing of having to get a signed release before you can kiss someone. […] If everybody involved in a sexual situation is a truly willing participant who goes in with their eyes open and doesn’t do anything he or she doesn’t want to, it’s a lot sexier and a lot more fun. I wish we could go back and unteach all the terrible lessons that all of us have learned.”

Author Against VAW 8: Fonda Lee

Fonda Lee is the author of Jade City, which was a Nebula Award Finalist and named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Barnes & Noble, Syfy Wire, and others. Her award-winning young adult science fiction novels include Zeroboxer, Exo and Cross Fire. Fonda is a recovering corporate strategist, black belt martial artist, and an action movie aficionado living in Portland, Oregon. When chatting to The Pixel Project about how parents can help stop VAW, Fonda said: “I run into this a lot: YA books that can’t go through the school market because they have sexual content because there are definitely parents who would rather just shelter kids from all mention of sex altogether and that doesn’t do anyone any favours because the reality is kids are online these days and they can have access to anything. So I’ve heard teachers say that they have situations where no one talks to young men about sexual consent and their education is basically looking up porn on the internet which is like a completely unrealistic and wrong way to learn about anything. The fact that kids have so much access to stuff online these days, they’re going to find out, they hear from their friends, they find it online, and parents kind of have to get in ahead of that and be willing to have those conversations.”

Authors Against VAW 9: Jay Kristoff

Jay Kristoff is a #1 international, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of LIFEL1K3, The Nevernight Chronicles and The Illunimae Files. He is the winner of five Aurealis Awards, an ABIA, has over half a million books in print and is published in over thirty-five countries, most of which he has never visited. He is as surprised about all of this as you are. He is 6’7 and has approximately 12,000 days to live. When talking about toxic masculinity and male violence, Jay said: “Violence is the last refuge of cowardice. I was raised in a house where that kind of thinking, that kind of attitude was simply unacceptable. My father taught me that that was never okay. It’s an abhorrence. Violence of any sort it’s an abhorrence. Anything we can do to end any kind of violence against any kind of person is important. […] particularly a kind a violence that is so extraordinarily prevalent and has been normalised for so many years. […] Anything  I can do to lead by example, I will.”

Authors Against VAW 10: Kristen Britain

Kristen Britain is the author of the New York Times-bestselling Green Rider series. She lives in an adobe house in the high desert of the American Southwest beneath the big sky and among lizards, hummingbirds and tumbleweeds. When asked about why she supports efforts to stop VAW, she said: “Fifty percent of the people of this planet are female and they need to be treated as human beings and that it would be a great start if the other half would treat the female population as human beings and… as human beings, women should be entitled to live without fear so they can excel the best they can and contribute to society. Because females should be able to walk down the street without being harassed. They should be able to fulfill a career without being confronted with misogyny.”

Authors Against VAW 11: Lynn Flewelling

Once upon a time in the magical wilds of Maine there was a little girl — who would someday be known as Lynn Flewelling — who would not, could not stop pretending. When she grew up she pretended her way into the Nightrunner series and The Tamír Triad, and all was well. Lynn’s work appears in a dozen languages. Born in northern Maine, Lynn is happily transplanted in Redlands, California, with her husband and too many animals. Lynn chatted to The Pixel Project in March 2018 about gender equality and its role in eradicating violence against women. She said: “Those with power don’t want to relinquish that power. They may recognise you as an equal but they will still want all the toys. So I think the fight continues. But I think gender equity would go a long way to help with that. But I think women to be treated as equals would mean there was an evolution of consciousness going on in the patriarchy and so that change has to start there.”

Authors Against VAW 12: Marie Brennan

Marie Brennan is the World Fantasy and Hugo Award-nominated author of several fantasy series, including the Memoirs of Lady Trent, the Onyx Court, the Wilders series, the Doppelganger duology, and the Varekai novellas, as well as more than fifty short stories. During her Read For Pixels Google Hangout, Marie said: “People hurting other people its not a good thing. We would all be happier if we were never subjected to it. But that change can’t work if we pretend that its being done equally in all corners and to all people because then we’re not actually looking at what’s in front of us. So we want to stop violence against women because it is disproportionately directed at women and women are disproportionately not supported when they are the victims of it. We need to focus on that because that’s the place where we can really make a big difference and push toward a better society for everybody in the long run. But it starts with women.”

Authors Against VAW 13: Richard K. Morgan

Richard K. Morgan is the award-winning author of The Dark Defiles, The Cold Commands, The Steel Remains, Black Man, Woken Furies, Market Forces, Broken Angels, and Altered Carbon, a New York Times Notable Book that won the Philip K. Dick Award in 2003. Altered Carbon is now a Netflix series. Market Forces was also optioned and won the John W. Campbell Award in 2005. When chatting with The Pixel Project about women’s human rights and VAW, he observed: “I don’t get anti-feminism. There are a number of people who said it better than me but if you genuinely say that you are not a feminist then what it means is that you do not value the fact that women can vote, the fact that women have access to decent healthcare, the fact that women can get a job without the permission of their father or their husband, the fact that women can get divorced if they’re in a position of being brutalised and can still manage to live their lives, the fact that women can have a refuge from violence against them. All those things you’re basically saying: “I could live without that”. All those things are the gains of feminism at some time or other in the past. It’s feminism that has brought that along.”

Authors Against VAW 14: Sara Raasch

Sara Raasch has known she was destined for bookish things since the age of five, when her friends had a lemonade stand and she tagged along to sell her hand-drawn picture books too. Not much has changed since then — her friends still cock concerned eyebrows when she attempts to draw things and her enthusiasm for the written word still drives her to extreme measures. Her New York Times bestselling Snow Like Ashes trilogy is available now from HarperCollins. It does not feature her hand-drawn pictures. When talking about the role of parents in bringing up the next generation of boys to not be violent, she said: “I actually have a son so this is something I have thought a lot about. I’m going to raise him to be a decent human being since obviously the goal of every parent is to make sure their child does not become a terrible person. I think a lot of it is to make sure that he is aware of other people, aware of how other people feel. That what he does affects others, not just women but just other people in general.”

Authors Against VAW 15: Tananarive Due

Tananarive Due is an author, educator and screenwriter who has won an American Book Award, a British Fantasy Award and an NAACP Image Award. She teaches Afrofuturism and Black Horror at UCLA and in the creative writing MFA program at Antioch University Los Angeles. She has received a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Fine Arts from the Congressional Black Congress. In her Google Hangout with The Pixel Project, Tananarive said: “We’ve seen […] so many women and men but especially women recalling their stories of abuse their sexual abuse and sexual assault, it’s so clear that it has a lasting traumatic impact and that traumatic impact has an impact on our children. So even though we might not tell a child the details of something violent that happened to us, they know in our behaviour they know in our silences and in that way a stranger’s act or a bad partner’s act from generations ago can still be rolling down your family tree. […] We have to break ourselves out of the cycles of letting people get away with violence, letting men get away with violence, letting parents get away with violence. We just have to break out of these cycles because it has such a lasting damage.”

Authors Against VAW 16: Vicki Pettersson

Vicki Pettersson is a New York Times Bestselling author of the Signs of the Zodiac and Celestial Blues paranormal series, and the straight psychological thriller, Swerve. She has a passion for writing women who defy the odds, who refuse to be silenced or stopped, and who won’t be written off. When asked why she supports the cause to end violence against women, she said: “I’m a chick and I’m gonna be a chick for a long time. I would like to move around the world in a safe way. I don’t know about anybody else but I’m tired of the alternative – it’s dirty and it’s unacceptable […]” She also said that authors should approach the topic of VAW “head on […] talk about it overtly. This is not something that should be hidden. It’s a problem and so we should address it.”

 

______________________________________________________________________

Photo Credits

  1. Alafair Burke – Courtesy of Alafair Burke; Photographer: Deborah Kopaken Kogan
  2. Ann Aguirre – Courtesy of Ann Aguirre
  3. Beth Cato – Courtesy of Beth Cato; Photographer: Corey Ralston Photography
  4. Brandon Sanderson – Courtesy of Brandon Sanderson
  5. Carrie Vaughn – Courtesy of Carrie Vaughn
  6. Dana Cameron – Courtesy of Dana Cameron
  7. David D. Levine – Courtesy of David D. Levine; Photographer: John Scalzi
  8. Fonda Lee – Courtesy of Fonda Lee
  9. Jay Kristoff – Courtesy of Jay Kristoff; Photographer: Christopher Tovo
  10. Kristen Britain – Courtesy of Kristen Britain; Photographer: Diana Whiting
  11. Lynn Flewelling – Courtesy of Lynn Flewelling
  12. Marie Brennan – Courtesy of Marie Brennan
  13. Richard K. Morgan – Courtesy of Richard K. Morgan
  14. Sara Raasch – Courtesy of Sara Raasch
  15. Tananarive Due – Courtesy of Tananarive Due
  16. Vicki Pettersson – Courtesy of Vicki Pettersson; Photographer: Jeferson Applegate

The Pixel Project Selection 2017: 16 Books About Violence Against Women

Far from being merely a source of entertainment, it is through storytelling that culture and beliefs are framed, reinforced, and transmitted. More than that, stories have the power to fire the imagination and inspire new thoughts and ideas and thus shape – or reshape – the perspective of individuals, communities and cultures about everything from tradition to gender.

In recognition of the power of storytelling to inspire change, The Pixel Project has put together our 2017 selection of 16 books or book series that depict violence against women and girls. Some of these stories are popular fiction while others are strictly non-fiction. Nevertheless, all of them will educate the reader in some way about violence, rape culture, cultural mores and misogyny.

The books and book series in this list have been selected from a wide range of genres including thrillers, fantasy, science fiction, and investigative journalism. They all show a common trend of depicting entrenched and pervasive violence against women and sexism in the diverse societies and worlds that they portray while offering threads of hope as people and characters fight for a world where women and girls are free from abuse.

This list is by no means complete as there are hundreds of books out there that deal with violence against women in its various forms. However, we hope that these 16 books and series will be a starting point for you, as they have for others over the years, to push for change in your community and culture.

Introduction by Anushia Kandasivam and Regina Yau; Written and compiled by Anushia Kandasivam and Regina Yau

——————————————————————————————————————–

Book Selection #1: A Safe Place (1997) by Maxine Trottier

This children’s book is about a little girl Emily who, together with her mother, goes to live in a shelter to escape her abusive father. At first Emily is scared of the new place and people but soon finds that the adults are kind and the children are friendly. Told from the child’s perspective, this book is for five-to seven-year-olds who may be experiencing similar circumstances and aims to teach them that there are places that are safe and that there are people, both adults and children, who understand what they have been and are going through and are ready to offer support.

Book Selection #2:​ ​ The “Cincinnati” series (2014 – ) by Karen Rose

The Cincinnati thriller series, comprising Alone in the Dark, Closer Than You Think and Every Dark Corner, follows two FBI special agents as they work to find young women and children who have gone missing as victims of a human trafficking ring. The series explores the dark and frightening underbelly of society, bringing to light some horrible truths about child pornography, human trafficking, and drug abuse and dependence. It also showcases characters who refuse to give up and who fight to reclaim their agency and freedom, recover from trauma, and help others in similar situations.

Book Selection #3: The “Courtyard of The Others” series (2013 – 2017)  by Anne Bishop

The Courtyard of The Others series revolves around Meg Corbyn, a young woman who is a cassandra sangue, or blood prophet who can see the future when her skin is cut. Meg’s Controller keeps her and other cassandra sangue enslaved so he can have full access to their visions in order to sell them to the highest bidder. When Meg escapes her owner and seeks refuge with the Others (including vampires and werewolves) who rule the earth, she sets in motion a tsunami of social change in the world. Through Meg’s story, Bishop deals with gender-based violence head on, including rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, slavery, and human trafficking; and she does so in powerful and thoughtful ways that make no bones of the fact that male violence and misogyny perpetuate violence against women.

Book Selection #4: The Girls at the Kingfisher Club (2014) by Genevieve Valentine

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club is award-winning science fiction and fantasy author Genevieve Valentine’s vivid reimagining of the fairytale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses as flappers during the Roaring Twenties in Manhattan. In this story, the main character Jo and her eleven sisters are controlled by their distant father who subjects them to financial and emotional abuse – aspects of domestic violence that are seldom addressed, much less explored, in books. Valentine’s deft depiction of the relationships between Jo, her sisters and her father show just how complex and damaging domestic violence can be, no matter what form it takes.

Book Selection #5: Hominids (2002) by Robert J. Sawyer

Hominids is the first book in award-winning Canadian science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer’s Neanderthal Parallax series, which centers around Ponter Boddit, a Neanderthal physicist from a parallel earth where Neanderthals were not subsumed by homo sapiens and have gone on to develop a radically different civilisation in which sexuality is fluid, gender equality is the norm and there is no rape. When he accidentally crosses into present-day earth, he ends up being accused of murder. Through this book, Sawyer does not just offer a vision of what a more equitable and less violent world might be like but also explores the issue of rape with respect and compassion through the main female character, Mary Vaughn, who survived a rape and continues to deal with the consequences of the attack throughout the book.

Book Selection #6: How to Run With a Naked Werewolf (2013) by Molly Harper

How to Run with a Naked Werewolf is the third book in Molly Harper’s Naked Werewolf series. The story opens with Tina Campbell, lately the human pack doctor for a community of werewolves, on the run from her abusive husband who has been relentlessly tracking her down since she fled their home. With the help of an anonymous code-named benefactor from a safety network specialising in relocating domestic violence survivors as well as a werewolf detective and the werewolf community she serves, her husband meets his comeuppance in the most satisfying way. Harper does not sugarcoat the danger and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experienced by survivors and while the story seems fluffy, it treats domestic violence and its consequences seriously.

Book Selection #7: The “Lily Bard” series (1996 – 2007)  by Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris is a prolific urban fantasy and mystery author who is perhaps best known as the author of the Southern Vampire Mystery series upon which the HBO vampire series True Blood is based. However, perhaps the most harrowing and absorbing of all her works is the Lily Bard series where the titular heroine is a rape survivor who solves grisly murder mysteries in her adopted hometown of Shakespeare, Arkansas while rebuilding her life and grappling with her PTSD. Harris – herself a rape survivor – captures the ever-reverberating echoes of pain caused by the trauma of sexual violence while showing just how much grit and strength are needed to function and move forward after the attack.

Books Selection #8: ​Lucky (1999) by Alice Sebold

In this memoir, Alice Sebold looks back at the brutal rape she experienced while in university, its aftermath, and how it transformed her life forever. The memoir reads somewhat like detective fiction because Sebold, on the advice of one of her professors, strived to remember everything about the incident, her interactions with authorities, friends and family after the incident, and her feelings throughout. She explains how she was told she was ‘lucky’ because she was not killed and her attacker left evidence on her by beating her. This story provides invaluable insights into a survivor’s world and chronicles her long and arduous journey to recovery and saving herself from her trauma.

Book Selection #9: The “Mercy Thompson” series (20016 – ) by Patricia Briggs

Patricia Briggs’ werewolf-driven urban fantasy follows the adventures of Mercy Thompson, a coyote Shifter who was adopted into and raised by a werewolf pack but was sent away at sixteen when her foster father realised that his centuries-old son intended to marry her solely for breeding purposes. Throughout the books, Mercy battles against sexism and patriarchy as she educates her adoptive werewolf father and her werewolf husband about treating women with respect and as equals. Briggs also deals with the aftermath of rape with sensitivity when Mercy is raped, not just by tackling Mercy’s struggle with PTSD but also showing how family and community should ideally treat rape survivors.

Book Selection #10: Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (2015) by Jon Krakauer

Between January 2008 and May 2012, hundreds of students in the highly-regarded state university in the college town of Missoula, Montana, USA, reported sexual assaults to the local police. Few of the cases were properly handled by the university and local authorities. In this dispassionate and meticulously researched book, acclaimed journalist Jon Krakauer investigates and studies acquaintance rape and the prevalent rape culture in the university, town and country, making it clear why rape is so prevalent on American campuses and why rape victims are so reluctant to report assault.

Book Selection #11: ​ The “Orphan X” series (2016 – ) by Gregg Hurwitz

Bestselling high-octane thriller writer Gregg Hurwitz’s latest series features Evan Smoak who is a 21st century feminist James Bond complete with a mentor who instills respect for women in him as part of his education and training as a second-to-none spy. Although the series only has two books so far, Smoak has come up against – and dismantled – human trafficking rings and violent pimps. Also commendable is Hurwitz’s inclusion of a wide range of well-rounded female characters in both the civilian and lone spy parts of Smoak’s double life, including a single mother who is also a district attorney, a sociopathic female spy and female clients who are tougher than they look.

Book Selection #12: “Push” (1996) by Sapphire

Push is told from the perspective of 16-year-old Precious Jones, who lives in Harlem, New York with her abusive mother and is functionally illiterate, obese and pregnant with her second child, the result of rape by her father. The novel details Precious’ journey from seemingly hopeless circumstances to learning how to read and write – as the book progresses, there is an improvement in the spelling and grammar – and her struggles through the welfare system, homelessness and escaping abuse. It also shows her growth in confidence and the realisation that despite what she has been told, her colour – Precious is African American – and her socioeconomic background are not necessarily the cause of her abuse. The 2009 film Precious was based on this novel.

Book Selection #13: The “Shifters” series (2007 – 2009)  by Rachel Vincent

Rachel Vincent’s five-book Shifters series is about Faythe, a rare female werecat who rebels against the extreme and violent patriarchy of werecat culture to rise to become the first female leader of her pride. For new readers, the first book in the series may be off-putting because Vincent uses the book to establish just how misogynistic the werecat culture and community is and why Faythe was initially attempting to leave it. However, readers who persevere are rewarded with a powerful story that tackles everything from casual sexism and forced marriage to bride kidnapping and attempted rape – everything that Faythe has to deal with as she battles to stop other prides from taking over her own.

Book Selection #14:​ The “Soulwood” series (2016 – )  by Faith Hunter

Bestselling urban fantasy author Faith Hunter is best-known for her Jane Yellowrock series. However, it is with Soulwood, her latest series and a spinoff from the Jane Yellowrock series that she tackles everything from misogyny to church cult polygamy to violence against women. The not-quite-human lead protagonist Nell Nicholson Ingram was raised in a church cult for which underage – and even forced – marriage was the norm with men in their thirties and beyond taking multiple teenage wives and concubines. Nell rebelled against her fate and the series follows her progress as she helps her family and women modernise the church while working as a special agent on cases involving paranormal creatures.

Book Selection #15: The Female of the Species (2016) by Mindy McGinnis

While this young adult (YA) novel may seem like a revenge thriller on the surface – it is about a girl whose older sister was raped and murdered and who has hunted down the perpetrator who went free – the majority of the story is about how the protagonist Alex deals with the darkness inside her and the violence she experiences and delivers. The story has the standard YA fare of high school drama, jealousies, gossip and underage drinking, but it also features quite a bit of violence and examines the pervasiveness of rape culture among young people and learned misogyny in a straightforward manner, calling out double standards and toxic masculinity.

Book Selection #16: The “World of the Lupi” series (2003 – ) by Eileen Wilks

The werewolves in Eileen Wilks’ World of the Lupi series have some very unusual traits that set them apart from most werewolf-driven urban fantasy works. Firstly, their guiding deity is a woman. Secondly, their culture abhors and outlaws violence against women of any form even as their traditions are otherwise very patriarchal. Add in the main protagonist Lily Yu, a Chinese American detective who solves mysteries while dealing with episodes of PTSD from a traumatic childhood kidnapping and attempted rape, and you have a series that is as feminist as they come.

 

___________________________________________________________________

Book Cover Credits:

  1. A Safe Place – From “A Safe Place” (Amazon.com)
  2. Every Dark Corner – Courtesy of Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House
  3. Etched in Bone – Courtesy of Ace, an imprint of Penguin Random House
  4. The Girls At The Kingfisher Club – From “The Girls At The Kingfisher Club” (Goodreads)
  5. Hominids – Courtesy of Robert J. Sawyer
  6. How To Run With A Naked Werewolf – From “How To Run With A Naked Werewolf” (Goodreads)
  7. Shakespeare’s Counselor – Courtesy of Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House
  8. Lucky – From Wikipedia
  9. Silence Fallen – Courtesy of Ace, an imprint of Penguin Random House
  10. Missoula: Rape And The Justice System In A College Town – From “Missoula: Rape And The Justice System In A College Town” (Amazon.com)
  11. Orphan X – Courtesy of Gregg Hurwitz
  12. Push – From Wikipedia
  13. Alpha – From “Alpha” (Goodreads)
  14. Flame In The Dark – Courtesy of Faith Hunter
  15. The Female Of The Species – From “The Female Of The Species” (HarperCollins.com)
  16. Dragon Blood – Courtesy of Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House

The Pixel Project Selection 2016: 16 Books About Violence Against Women

kids-reading-3-1470506_cropped

Stories have the power to fire the imagination and provoke new thoughts and ideas. For this purpose, The Pixel Project has put together a list of 16 books that depict violence against women and girls. Some of these stories are fictional and some are not, but all of them will educate the reader in some way about violence, rape culture, cultural mores and misogyny.

The stories on this list have been taken from various genres, from thrillers and dramas to science fiction and autobiographies but they all show a common trend of entrenched and pervasive violence against women in the diverse societies they portray. They do, however, offer threads of hope, with people and characters pushing back against the tide and fighting for a world where women and girls are free from violence.

This list is not exhaustive; there are hundreds of stories out there that deal with violence against women in its various forms. But we hope that these 16 stories will education and inspire you as they have galvanised others over the years to push for change in your community.

Written and compiled by Anushia Kandasivam


Selection number 1: Speak (1999) by Laurie Halse Anderson

speak_1st_edition_cover

This young adult novel tells the story of a teenager Melinda Sordino who starts the new school year as a selective mute. She is ostracised by her peers because she had called the police to a house party but the truth about why she did this is not revealed until much later. Melinda finds a way to express herself through art with the help of a supportive teacher, which helps her come to terms with her trauma and finally give voice to it. Speak is written in a diary format, so the plot is non-linear and jumpy, mimicking Melinda’s feelings and her journey. It is interesting to note that this book has faced censorship because of its mature content. It was made into a film in 2004 starring Kristen Stewart.

Selection number 2: The Colour Purple (1982) by Alice Walker

colorpurpleA Pulitzer Prize winning novel set in rural Georgia, USA in the 1930s, The Colour Purple focuses on the lives of African American women, including their low social status, struggles through poverty and the sexism and sexual violence they have to live through. The story follows Celie, a poor and uneducated teenage girl who experiences sexual violence from a young age and who is forced to marry an older man. The novel not only explores the themes of violence, sexism and racism, it also touches on gender roles, with several characters blurring the boundaries of gender expectations. There is also a strong underlying theme of sisterhood – women supporting each other through the trials and tribulations of life. In fact, it is this strong bond between the main women characters in the novel that enables their self-realisation and growth. Despite its popularity and awards, The Colour Purple continues to be challenged by censors for its depictions of violence and homosexuality, among other things. It has been adapted into a film and a musical.

Selection number 3: La Dangereuse (2016) by Loubna Abidar and Marion Van Renterghem

la-dangereuseLa Dangereuse (The Dangerous Woman) is the French-language autobiography of Moroccan actress Loubna Abidar, based on interviews with Le Monde journalist Marion Van Renterghem, tells the story of how Abidar overcame poverty and physical and sexual abuse by her father to become one of Morocco’s most acclaimed young actresses. Last year, Abidar was vilified for playing the role of a prostitute in award-winning local film Much Loved and was later beaten on the streets of Casablanca. A refugee ever since, the 31-year-old speaks frankly in her book about the hypocrisy of men, the weight of tradition and taboos and the profound misogyny in her society and culture, but also declares that she refuses to live in fear.

Selection number 4: The Shining Girls (2013) by Lauren Beukes

laurenbeukes_shininggirls_1st_edThis science fiction thriller by South African author Beukes steps back and forth through time following a serial killer who is compelled to stalk and murder ‘shining girls’, young women with great potential whom he sees as literally shining. One of his victims, Kirby Mazrachi, who was attacked in 1989, survives and turns the tables, hunting him back. Besides the mystery and thriller elements, the novel also depicts a survivor’s story through Kirby and how she deals with the aftermath of her attack, and offers readers strong and powerful female characters who overcome their fears to fight back.

Selection number 5: Trafficked: My Story of Surviving, Escaping and Transcending Abduction into Prostitution (2013) by Sophie Hayes

traffickedThis first-hand account of a human trafficking survivor took the author’s home country by storm when it first came out because of one surprising detail – the author and survivor Sophie Hayes is from the UK, a country not known for human trafficking and where people are not as aware of sex trafficking as they should be. Hayes, a young, educated English woman, was tricked and abducted by a man she thought of as her boyfriend and forced to work as a prostitute in a strange country. Beaten and otherwise abused, Hayes took advantage of a chance opportunity to escape. This memoir has generated much discussion in the UK and other first-world countries about the unseen world of human trafficking as well as calls for more awareness and better law and policy. Hayes along with a small team also set up The Sophie Hayes Foundation, which conducts research on human trafficking, creates awareness and offers support to survivors.

Selection number 6: The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II (1997) by Iris Chang

therapeofnanking_1edcoverThis bestselling non-fiction book is about the Nanking Massacre, the 1937-1938 campaign of mass murder and rape by the Imperial Japanese Army after its capture of the city of Nanjing, then the capital of China. In the book, Chang details the atrocities committed by the Japanese Army, including killing, torture and rape; women and girls from all classes and of all ages were raped. The book has received as much criticism as it has acclaim but either way it did much to bring light to a much-ignored yet significant part of World War II, war crimes in general and war crimes perpetrated against women specifically.

Selection number 7: If I Were a Boy (1936) by Haki Stёrmilli

sikur_tisha_djale-if-i-were-a-boyThis Albanian-language epistolary novel (Sikur t’isha djalё) tells the story of a young girl named Dija as she goes through life in the strictly patriarchal Albanian society. Told through a series of diary entries read by Dija’s male cousin, it describes in first person the hardships, struggles and horrors she experiences throughout her life because of her having virtually no say in anything that happens to her. She is forced into marriage to a much older man, suffers abuse, and battles depression and suicidal thoughts.

Selection number 8: Indigo Blue (2005) by Cathy Cassidy

indigo-blueA children’s book, Indigo Blue is about young Indigo whose mother suddenly decides to move her and her baby sister out of their cozy house to a ‘flat from hell’. While at first she does not understand why they have to leave their old life and her mother’s boyfriend behind and suffer poor living conditions and not enough food, Indigo eventually learns to take charge and make the most of her situation. The novel depicts domestic violence, love and depression in various forms, giving young readers some understanding and insight into a family situation that has become prevalent in all societies.

Selection number 9: A Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood

thehandmaidstale1stedA dystopian speculative fiction novel set in the near future, A Handmaid’s Tale has won and been nominated for several awards and been adapted for film, radio, opera and stage. Exploring the themes of the subjugation of women, it tells the story of a particular young woman call Offred who is a handmaid, part of the class of women whose sole purpose is reproduction in a society where people are divided and distinguished by sex, occupation and caste. Clothing is colour-coded to reflect this division and it is strongly implied that while some men clothes, such as military uniforms, empower men, women have little to no power in society. The novel engenders discussion about control over people – Offred struggles for agency throughout the story – consent in relationships and the need for women to support each other.

Selection number 10: My Story (2014) by Elizabeth Smart with Chris Stewart

my-storyNow a child safety activist, Elizabeth Smart was 14 when she was abducted from her home in Salt Lake City and rescued nine months later. In this memoir, Smart tells of her ordeal, her determined hold on hope and how she devised a plan to increase her chances of escape or rescue. She also details how she coped after the fact, seeing justice served and her journey of healing and becoming an advocate. The novel emphasises the importance of individual self worth in survivors. Smart founded the Elizabeth Smart Foundation to prevent and put a stop to predatory crimes.

Selection number 11: Echo Burning (2001) by Lee Child

echo-burningThe fifth book in the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child and a thriller at its core, Echo Burning also explores domestic abuse. In the story, Reacher is approached by a woman, Carmen, who wants her husband killed because he is about to be released from prison and return home, whereupon he will inevitably start beating her again. Child has said that, inspired by an American Old West gunfighter who ‘never killed a man that did not need killing’, he wanted to explore the idea of man who Reacher is told needed killing. The story also explores the ambiguity of character – there is always a question whether Carmen can be trusted – as well as the diversity of American society as reflected in the character of a powerful female lawyer.

Selection number 12: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2005) by Stieg Larsson

thegirlwiththedragontattooThis internationally bestselling psychological thriller, titled Mӓn som hatar kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women) in its original Swedish, was translated and published in English in 2008. The eponymous girl is brilliant but troubled researcher and hacker Lisbeth Salander, who assists protagonist Mikael Blomkvist as he has been hired to solve the disappearance and possible murder of a girl. There is a strong theme of violence against women in various forms, including sexual predation and murder, and the story shows how violence can happen to and be perpetrated by anyone from any social class.

Selection number 13: Rose Madder (1995) by Stephen King

rosemadderThough Stephen King has explored the theme of domestic violence in several novels, in Rose Madder it plays an integral part of the plot. The protagonist is Rose Daniels, who lives with an abusive husband for 14 years before finally deciding that she has to leave him. The story shows this turning point and her subsequent journey to self-realisation while dealing with the constant fear that her husband, a policeman who is good at finding people, will track her down.

 

Selection number 14: Something Is Wrong at My House: A Book About Parents’ Fighting (2010) by Diane Davis

something-is-wrong-at-my-houseBased on a true story, this book was created for children who are seeking help for and understanding of domestic violence. It is written so that it can be used by both very young and school-age children, with simple but clear text and illustrations to help children make sense of a frightening situation and encourage them to talk about it with trusted adults. It is also designed so that it can be used by teachers, school counsellors and nurses, and therapists.

 

Selection number 15: Woman at Point Zero (1973) by Nawal El Saadawi

woman_at_point_zero_1st_eng_edBased on the author’s encounter with a female prisoner in Qanatir Prison in Egypt during her research into female neurosis, the premise of this story is a psychiatrist visiting a prison in which she meets and speaks with an unusual female prisoner, Firdaus, who has been accused of murder and is scheduled for execution. The story is that of the Firdaus’ life from her poor childhood when she witnessed domestic violence, survives genital mutilation and sexual abuse, to being forced into marriage with an older man and living through a violent marriage. Firdaus tells of how she gained agency, power and reached self-realisation before everything came crashing down.

Selection number 16: Alias (2001 – 2004) created by Brian Michael Bendis and Micahael Gaydos

aliasomnibusPublished by Marvel Comics under it MAX imprint, the Alias comic book series follows protagonist Jessica Jones after she leaves behind her life as a costumed hero and becomes a private investigator. The overarching story arc across the 28 issues is Jones’ character development as she comes to terms with a traumatic past where she was manipulated and abused, and as she struggles to deal with the present-day physical, emotional and mental consequences. Adapted into an on-going television series called Jessica Jones in 2015, this series has won two awards and been nominated for others.


Photo credits:

  1. Speak – From www.nobelwomensinitiative.org
  2. The Colour Purple – https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19909555
  3. La Dangereuse – From Amazon.fr 
  4. The Shining Girls – from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39574596 (Book Cover design by Joey Hi-Fi)
  5. Trafficked: My Story of Surviving, Escaping and Transcending Abduction into Prostitution – From Amazon.com
  6. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II  – From https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12768170
  7. If I Were a Boy – From https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36126680
  8. Indigo Blue – From Amazon.com
  9. A Handmaid’s Tale – From https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20132070
  10. My Story – From Amazon.com
  11. Echo Burning – From World of Books.
  12. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – From https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17084782
  13. Rose Madder – From https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15658136
  14. Something Is Wrong at My House: A Book About Parents’ Fighting – From Amazon.com
  15. Woman at Point Zero – From https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32458784
  16. Alias – From https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5599614

The Pixel Project Selection 2016: 16 Authors Saying NO To Violence Against Women

header-authors-2016

Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labelled: “This could change your life.” – Helen Exley

Violence against women (VAW) is a prevalent and entrenched part of countless societies around the world but it is still considered a taboo topic even, to a certain extent, in developed and first-world communities.  Pop culture media, therefore is invaluable at raising awareness, and promoting and prompting advocacy against VAW, doing much to break the silence.

The Pixel Project’s Read For Pixels campaign was first launched in September 2014 in recognition of the longstanding power of books to shape cultural ideas and influence the direction of history. From Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird to to J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series to Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, popular authors and their stories have been instrumental in planting ideas, triggering thoughtful water-cooler discussions, and providing food for thought for communities. And in the age of geek culture and social media, bestselling authors wield influence beyond just their books as they are able to directly communicate their readers and fans via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and other social media channels.

Since then, the campaign has gone from strength to strength. To date, 60 award-winning bestselling authors from genres as diverse as Science Fiction, Fantasy, Crime, Thrillers, and Horror have participated in various Read For Pixels campaigns and initiatives, raising more than $33,500 for the cause to end VAW to date.

In this article, we honour 16 of this year’s bestselling authors from our 2015 and 2016 Read For Pixels campaigns. They hail from genres as diverse as Comics, Horror, Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult, Urban Fantasy and Science Fiction. Many of them are global celebrities with strong fan followings, others are well-respected in their countries or genres. Still others are up-and-coming stars who have decided to use their talents for good. It is the movement to end VAW that unites and inspires them and we hope that all of them will continue to work with the movement in years to come.

To learn more about each author and their books, click on the author’s name.

To learn more about what each author has to say about violence against women, click on their quote to be taken to the YouTube video of their Read For Pixels Google Hangout or their blog articles.

Written and compiled by Anushia Kandasivam

______________________________________________________________________

Author Against VAW 1: Alexandra Sokoloff

alexandra-sokoloffAlexandra Sokoloff is the bestselling, Thriller Award-winning and Bram Stoker and Anthony Award-nominated author of eleven supernatural, paranormal and crime thrillers. When asked why she supports the cause to end violence against women, she said, “Violence against women is an atrocity that no civilised person should allow to happen. Ending it should be everybody’s cause. Any deep inequality like that…should be ended. The people who don’t see anything wrong happening [have] an amazing blindness that I don’t understand.”

 

Author Against VAW 2: Christopher Golden

christopher-golden_thumbnailChristopher Golden is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of such novels as Snowblind, Tin Men, Dead Ringers, and Of Saints and Shadows. His original novels have been published in more than fifteen languages in countries around the world. Christopher has been speaking out against harassment at conventions and when asked how geek culture can be more welcoming towards women and girls during his Google Hangout, he said: “I think that it’s a combination of elements. I absolutely think the situation…has been dramatically improving over the last few years. The reason [for this] as far as I can tell is the voices – creators and fans standing up and speaking against the ridiculous misogyny. The trolls will always be there and the problem [with them] is that their voices are so loud. We need to have loud voices in response to them and band together, whether you’re online or at a convention. I posted a blog where I talked about wanting to be a wingman – if I’m at a convention and you’re there and you feel unsafe in some way and need somebody to get you through a circumstance, I’ll be happy to do that. I encourage fans and creators at conventions to make the same kind of statements publicly, to get out there and…help create a safe space. These are the ways we can make a difference so that the trolls’ voices aren’t quite so loud.”

Author Against VAW 3: Claudia Gray

claudia-grayClaudia Gray has worked as a lawyer, a journalist, a disc jockey, and an extremely poor waitress. Claudia is super excited to be the author of a new Star Wars novel Bloodline: New Republic, which came out in March 2016. When asked about speaking out against VAW, she said: “You have to be open to finding those opportunities and not be afraid to speak out. There have been so many writers who have helped bring this topic forward and helped young readers recognise this for what it is. There are so many disguises hung over this kind of abuse, to make it look like something other than it is. I think you have to work honestly and look for the opportunities to pitch in where you can, whether it’s donating time or books, or talking to readers in different contexts about this. I think that’s where you have to begin.

Author Against VAW 4: Colleen Gleason

colleen-gleason-croppedColleen Gleason is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling and award-winning author who has written everything from vampire hunters and dystopian romance to steampunk, historical romance and mysteries with a supernatural flair. All of Colleen’s books feature strong heroines experiencing fast-paced adventures, danger, mystery, and of course, romance. Speaking about how authors can kick off social change to end VAW, she said: “Whenever we have a forum to talk about this, and authors do have a platform through our stories or social media, we should. Authors can do that by writing characters who show respect towards women whether they agree with them [or not]. I think it’s important to show that you can disagree with someone or even not like someone but still have respect for them. I think that can come through all our platforms. Respecting people for who they are and not asserting control over everyone. We can also show characters without respect and then how other men or women are able to combat that character who is disrespectful or violent. If there is violence or disrespect, both genders need to respond to it.

Author Against VAW 5: Dan Wells

dan-wells_thumbnailDan Wells is the author of the Partials series and the John Cleaver series. His newest book Bluescreen is the first book in the Mirador series. He has been nominated for a Hugo, a Whitney, and a Campbell Award and has won two Parsec Awards for his podcast Writing Excuses, as well as a Hugo award for his writing. Dan strongly believes that men and boys must be engaged to end VAW. When asked why he supports The Pixel Project and the cause to end VAW, he said: “It feels like the most obvious thing. VAW is so common and accepted that it’s almost become white noise in our culture. We tend to not notice it. I support the Read For Pixels campaign in particular because I love the Celebrity Male Role Model aspect of it. If there’s a segment of the population that is sick and tired of listening to women tell them to stop beating women, if the only way to reach them is to get men to do it, then let’s do it. We need to talk to men directly. Yes, women need to be aware [of danger and how to protect themselves] and where they can turn when problems arise, but first and foremost VAW is a male problem, not a female problem, because it is men who are doing it. We as men need to stand up and…be role models for other men and boys. I love the Read For Pixels campaign precisely because it has such a strong focus on teaching men from childhood how to…be good and make the world a better place.

Author Against VAW 6: Darynda Jones

darynda-jonesNew York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Darynda Jones has won numerous awards for her work including a prestigious RITA, a Golden Heart, and a Daphne du Maurier. When asked why she supports the cause to end VAW, she said: “It’s a basic human right that women should not ever have to live in fear or worry that they are going to get hit or live through the day. Women should never be controlled. Violence is not just physical, it’s just as much mental and verbal. It’s just not OK. Women need to know that there’s help out there and they can change things and they have power. They are powerful and strong and do have power to change things. Until they seek that help and figure out…how to break that cycle, it’s important to know there is help out there.

Author Against VAW 7: Gregg Hurwitz

gregg-hurwitz_thumbnailGregg Hurwitz is the New York Times bestselling author of 15 thrillers, most recently, Orphan X. His novels have been shortlisted for numerous literary awards, graced top ten lists, and have been translated into 27 languages. He is also a New York Times Bestselling comic book writer, having penned stories for Marvel (Wolverine, Punisher) and DC (Batman, Penguin). Gregg is turning character stereotypes on their heads by writing traditionally hypermasculine characters, such as assassins and spies, as respectful and empathetic people. Speaking about how a popular work of fiction can push forward the conversation on male violence against women in a constructive manner, he said: “One of the things I’m always very careful to do is to write women and their circumstances that are well rounded. It’s a fine line between writing a scene where a woman is being molested and your hero swings in and white knights his way through and where the women aren’t fully formed characters but merely there as a foil for the male character. One of the things important to me in this conversation is to have characters who are really fully formed. One of the ways you move forward any genre is making sure there are no straw women, that you’re not creating character that only serve as a foil and contrast to the male characters but are fully formed. And the more powerful the women are around a man, I feel it reflects better on the man. Both genders need to move apiece if you want to start to address these issues.

Author Against VAW 8: Keri Arthur

keri-arthurKeri Arthur, the New York Times bestselling author of the Outcast, Souls of Fire, Dark Angels, and Riley Jenson Guardian series, has written more than thirty books. She’s been nominated in the Best Contemporary Paranormal category of the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Awards and has won a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for urban fantasy. When talking about realistic portrayals of assault or abuse in fiction, and what authors can do to bring more awareness to VAW, she said: “I think you can’t gloss over it, you’ve got to address the consequences to the characters to make it more realistic, and have characters seeking help through friends or family or anything else. [Authors can help] by supporting organisations like The Pixel Project and speaking out against VAW – talking about it. Telling the right stories and having strong female characters who won’t back down and stand strong is very important too.

Author Against VAW 9: Lauren Beukes

lauren-beukes_croppedLauren Beukes is the author of The Shining Girls, Broken Monsters, Zoo City and Moxyland. Her books have been translated into 26 languages, won major literary, horror, science fiction and mystery prizes and been optioned for film adaptations. She also writes comics, screenplays and journalism. Lauren believes that though there are many keyboard warriors out there, supporters of the cause to end VAW should put their money (or time) where their mouth is. Speaking about how it takes the efforts of the whole community to change prevailing attitudes towards women, she said: “The problem is this idea that women are less than human – women are belongings, sex objects, subservient to men, that we’re not people. That the real danger and that where you have to put the education in. It starts with raising your voices…against it all the time. You need to intervene. It’s about stepping up if you think someone is being harassed, about calling someone out on it. […] We need to be active and engaged in our own lives, find an organisation that works in these areas and volunteer or donate.

Author Against VAW 10: Laurie R. King

laurie-r-kingLaurie R. King is the New York Times bestselling author of 22 novels and other works, including the Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes stories (from The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, named one of the 20th century’s best crime novels by the IMBA, to 2015’s Dreaming Spies). She has won or been nominated for an alphabet of prizes from Agatha to Wolfe, been chosen as guest of honour at several crime conventions, and is probably the only writer to have both an Edgar and an honorary doctorate in theology. On the role men can play in stopping VAW and who she counts as a role model in this context, she said: “Anyone who says ‘no’ [is a role model]. There’s a lot of talk on college campuses in the US about the problems of getting young men to not feel that they’re betraying their maleness by standing up for someone. If you have someone whose sense of self is enough that they say to a male friend of theirs ‘No, that’s not right’, that I think is the kind of deep everyday heroic act that I’d really like to see. There’s a fair amount of it around but I think we need to have each young man out there see that this is what they should be striving towards.

Author Against VAW 11: Max Gladstone

max-gladstone_thumbnailMax Gladstone has been nominated twice for the John W Campbell Best New Writer Award. Tor Books published Four Roads Cross, the fifth novel in Max’s Craft Sequence (preceded by Three Parts Dead, Two Serpents Rise, Full Fathom Five, and Last First Snow) in July 2016. Max’s game Choice Of The Deathless was nominated for a 2013 XYZZY Award, and his short fiction has appeared on Tor.com and in Uncanny Magazine. On the reason he supports the cause to end VAW, he said: “I just think violence against women is terribly wrong. We live in a culture that’s profoundly and systematically misogynistic […] You need to understand the way your culture fits together and then you need to make it better. It’s your responsibility to not just continue blindly on the path that has been set for you but to look around and try to fix things so that the next person has a little bit better of a place to try to fix than you inherited. That’s our responsibility and that’s why I support the cause of ending violence against women.

Author Against VAW 12: Meg Cabot

meg-cabot-croppedMeg Cabot’s books for both adults and tweens/teens have included multiple #1 New York Times bestsellers, selling well over 25 million copies worldwide. Her Princess Diaries series has been published in more than 38 countries and was made into two hit films by Disney. Meg’s numerous other award-winning books include the Mediator series and the Heather Wells mystery series. When asked why she supports The Pixel Project and the cause to end VAW, she said: The Pixel Project has been really awesome. I’ve been aware of the campaign for a long time and I really wanted to hang out with you. I think ending violence against women is a really important cause to support because it is unfortunately so common and people don’t speak out against it enough. It’s one of those secret things that goes on in every neighbourhood, in every income bracket in every part of the world. I think if we can talk about it more it’s something we can all help combat.

Author Against VAW 13: Nalini Singh

nalini-singhNalini Singh is the New York Times bestselling author of the Psy-Changeling, Guild Hunter and Rock Kiss series. Nalini believes that talking about VAW is key to awareness and change, saying: “It’s important to talk about it because it’s something that people get uncomfortable about and so it doesn’t get talked about. At the same time, the people who need the help are some of the most vulnerable people so those of us who can talk about it should talk about it so that it’s visible and people feel that they can approach someone and say they need help. As a writer, I can talk about it, discuss it, I can help in that way. It’s my small contribution to The Pixel Project as well to help fundraise and help the discussion keep going.

Author Against VAW 14: Steven Erikson

steven-erikson_thumbnailSteven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series, including The Crippled God, Dust of Dreams, Toll the Hounds and Reaper’s Gale, have met with widespread international acclaim and established him as a major voice in the world of fantasy fiction. On what parents and influential male role models can do to prevent VAW in future generations and get boys involved, he said: “I think to remove the stigma of empathy. A lot of what is presented as the male approach to living in the world is quite confrontational these days and involves a lot of implicit aggression. My argument to anyone in almost any circumstance is ‘What would it be like standing in that person’s shoes?’ As a writer, that’s part of my job – to stand in the shoes of people in very different circumstances and then find some element of commonality that invites the reader to identify with that person’s point of view. I’ve often described the Malazan series as a three million word plea for compassion, and that’s what the series is about. I think that level of empathy offered would have an effect on how people treat each other regardless of gender. But now we seem to be fighting a battle against hostility towards that notion of empathy.”

Author Against VAW 15: Tamora Pierce

tamora-pierceBased in Syracuse NY, Tamora Pierce is the New York Times bestselling writer of over 28 books of fantasy, most with girl heroes. She has also published short stories, articles, and comics. The first book of her next Tortall series will be published in Summer of 2017, followed by The Spy’s Guide to Tortall: From the Desk of George Cooper in fall of the same year. During her Google Hangout, Tamora read an excerpt from her book Page that centered around an incident of assault and bystander intervention, and she also recounted an incident where she witnessed a man assaulting his wife on a busy public street and joined a group of women to help stop the assault and call the police. Speaking about what people can do about bystander intervention and reporting, she said: “Call for help. You can get more with a group of people than just one person by yourself. At the very least, you can call out ‘Stop that, let her alone.’ If he thinks more people are watching, he may break off. There’s always a risk, and if you feel too afraid, don’t beat yourself up for that. Not all of us are heroes; I certainly am not. You have to measure your fears and your strength. Report what you can always, and take notes of what the man and woman looked like. Do what you can and don’t blame yourself.

Author Against VAW 16: Victoria V.E. Schwab

v-e-schwab_thumbnailVictoria (V.E.) Schwab is the author of eleven novels, including the #1 New York Times bestselling This Savage Song, the New York Times & USA Today bestselling A Darker Shade of Magic series, Vicious, and The Archived. Speaking about powerful women in fiction, how they are portrayed and what we can learn from them, she said: “Powerful women take many forms. Take Agent Carter and Miss Fisher – these are two extraordinarily powerful women with immense agency who are also hyperfeminine. I think we went through this period where to be powerful you have to be masculine and I don’t think masculinity is a key for female empowerment. I think it’s agency – you know what you want and you’re willing to take action to get it. I think it’s active over reactive – you don’t wait for somebody else to come up with the plan. It’s never a lack of fear…but rather a refusal to let fear stop them. I think that’s what makes a strong character.