Status Updates From On Being Raped

one of the saddest things abt this book, for me, is how raymond douglas will acknowledge the enormity of what has happened to him, only for him to continuously downplay it. "only four hours in a room" as if he wasnt violently beaten and raped and then realized at one point that his rapist might genuinely kill him.

'Men, straight or gay, who are raped are not literally feminized; they must and will continue to live in the world, in a man’s body, and participate in a society that for better or worse will remain gender based'

'But in fact I was simply running up against what I later found to be the nearest thing to a universal law, regardless of one’s sex, age, or race: when a person is raped, everybody else knows better than the victim why it happened and what it really means. Only the nature of the explanation differs, according to whom one asks.'

:(

"In the end we are all human beings, and human beings who have been raped have the very devil of a time. It's important not to lose sight of that." THIS.

This book is utterly wrenching. But it might be one of the most important ones I've ever read.