You Are Invited: A Conversation on Sexual Violence in Asian America

ABSTRACT

In this conversation, we come together as two literary scholars who care deeply about working against sexual violence. We explore the difficulties of talking about rape culture in our own lives and in literature, the need for soft approaches to activism and academia, and how to cultivate expansive practices in reading literature on sexual violence. Building upon the work of Black and women of color feminists who actively practice collaboration and community, we invite readers to join us as we imagine responses to rape culture that are futuristic and inventive as rape culture is ancient, vast, and deep.

KEYWORDS:

• MeToo
• rape culture
• Asian American literature

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. erin Khuê Ninh and Shireen Roshanravan, “#WeToo: A Convening,” Journal of Asian American Studies 24, no. 1 (2021): 1–8, Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/jaas.2021.0001.

2. erin Khuê Ninh, “Without Enhancements: Sexual Violence in the Everyday Lives of Asian American Women,” in Asian American Feminisms and Women of Color Politics, ed. Lynn Fujiwara and Shireen Roshanravan (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2018), 69–81.

3. Juliana Hu Pegues, “Rape Is/Not a Metaphor,” Journal of Asian American Studies 24, no. 1 (2021): 9–17, Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/jaas.2021.0002.

4. Ninh, “Without Enhancements”

5. See: Tarana Burke, Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement (New York: Macmillan, 2021); Listening for Something … Adrienne Rich and Dionne Brand in Conversation, directed by Dionne Brand (Canada: Studio D, 1996); Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, ed., How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective (Chicago: Haymarket, 2017).

6. Thaomi Michelle Dinh and Bryan Dan Trinh, “To My 21-Year Old Self,” Journal of Asian American Studies 24, no. 1 (2021): 59–67, Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/jaas.2021.0008.

7. Katie J.M. Baker, “Here’s the Powerful Letter the Stanford Victim Read to Her Attacker,” BuzzFeed News, June 3, 2016, www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra.

8. Christina Sharpe, In the Wake (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thaomi Michelle Dinh

Thaomi Michelle Dinh is the Associate Director of Asian American Studies at Stanford University. She teaches and conducts research on cultural studies, sexual violence, and abolition.

Seo-Young Chu

Seo-Young Chu is a Korean American survivor, writer, and academic. She teaches at Queens College, CUNY.