Why women choose the grizzly
TRIGGER WARNING: SEXUAL ASSAULT AND VIOLENCE
When a large number of women were asked whether they would rather be alone in the woods with a bear or man, many chose the bear. That’s where the name of a new horror story anthology, Grizzly, edited by S.C. Fischer and Harriet Everend emerged. Each story starts with one of the reasons the women gave, such as, “The bear won’t tell you he’ll harm your loved ones if you tell anyone what he did to you,” and “You won’t have to face the bear in court and describe what he did to you to complete strangers.”
The 22 talented writers who contributed to this volume show why, for many of us who identify as female, trans or nonbinary, fear men. Their stories show not only the horror of sexual assault but the retraumatizing actions done to survivors in our current misogynistic society: the not-so-subtle suggestions that we brought it on ourselves and therefore deserve it, the trivialization of very traumatic incidents, the frequent reluctance of people in positions of power to prosecute for fear of ruining his reputation, especially if the perpetrator is a winning athlete.
Their stories are the ones the patriarchy does not want told either through books or in daily life, some of the ones most targeted by book censorship groups. They tell you that that banning is a matter of morality when it’s actually one of control, of maintaining male power and privilege, of keeping inconvenient topics taboo and shame inducing. This is especially pernicious when it’s done to books written for teens under the guise of protecting them.
Sexual assault and the shaming that silences so many survivors are endemic in our society and common on college campuses. If you are not a survivor, you probably know someone who is: a friend or roommate, a professor, an RA, a coach, a hometown neighbor, a relative. My adult kids call one of these survivors “Mom”. I could easily stay safely silent. I’m a graduate student in the higher education program, preparing for a career in student services at the university of my heart. My husband and I just celebrated our 35th anniversary. We’re the proud parents of three amazing grown up children. I’m a committed community volunteer and an engaged Black Bear…
…but decades ago, when a trusted friend of my mother, a married man with children, gave me a ride, he held a fish gutting knife against my throat and said he’d slit it if I didn’t give him what he wanted. I had no reason to doubt him. Afterwards, he described how he’d stalked me for weeks, like a predator stalks prey. I was his prey.
But I was not ashamed. I was angry. And I knew what I wanted. I wanted our society to stop protecting rapists and shaming and penalizing survivors. I wanted a world where non-male people could walk wherever they wish with agency, purpose and passion. I wanted a world where sexual assault would be unthinkable.
As the mother of two daughters, I demand we make this world possible, and I know what to do to get there. We need to make books like Grizzly, that speak truth to power, available to everyone who wants to read them. We need to believe survivors learn to listen. We need to make the elephant in the room inescapably visible. We need to persist until we achieve nothing less than justice–no matter how long it takes.
Grizzly is a charity anthology. All proceeds from it support Take Back the Night, an organization dedicated to ending sexual assault globally.
You are invited to join one of the writers, UMaine’s own Amber Hathaway, and three WGS-affiliated faculty members for a roundtable discussion of her contribution to Grizzly on Wednesday, Sept. 25, in the Lown Room of the Memorial Union. She will be donating a copy of Grizzly to Fogler Library to make it available to students.
