It’s time to rethink how we write our trauma narratives.

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It’s time to rethink how we write our trauma narratives.

Shendart/Getty Images

There are a lot of big subjects that our culture has trouble talking about: wealth, death, addiction, religion. But one of the toughest has to be sexual assault and rape. For how common sexual violence is – it affects over half of women and almost one in three men – it can be extremely painful and even stigmatizing to discuss. But in Jamie Hood’s new book Trauma Plot, which contextualizes rape in her own life and in our culture, Jamie looks for new ways to speak the “unspeakable.” It tells her story in experimental fragments and finds a unique way to discuss one of the most common violences we face. Brittany sits down with Jamie to discuss Trauma Plot, the contours of rape narratives in our culture, and how we can move beyond them to tell stories about sexual violence in new ways.

This episode was produced by Liam McBain. It was edited by Neena Pathak. Our Supervising Producer is Barton Girdwood. Our Executive Producer is Veralyn Williams. Our VP of Programming is Yolanda Sangweni.