A Manifesto

A call to action for feminists & social justice advocates

When representing and writing about incest (and other forms of sexual violence against girls and women), it’s crucial that we emphasize the systemic nature of the problem. To do so, we need to reconsider our conventional way of talking about incest. I’m referring to the story that we all know so well that focuses on the weak, damaged, and suffering girl (and sometimes a cop or physician playing the role of deus ex machina).

Instead, we need to frame incest for what it truly is: not a surprising anomaly, a rare breakdown of the social order, but rather part of patriarchal culture’s normal social baseline, like racism.