Research & Literature

The ‘me too.’ Movement presents this collection of resources as one of the many places you can start your healing journey. Whether you find a memoir that lets you go inside the mind of an actual survivor through their first-person account of harm and healing, or you want to read up on statistics and research that can propel your own healing or activism, this ever-expanding library is for you.

Submit new Literature

Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood

Rebecca Epstein, Jamilia J. Blake, Thalia Gonzalez | 2017

This groundbreaking study by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality provides, for the first time, hard data showing that adults view Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers, especially in the age range of 5 – 14. The report builds on similar results that have emerged from studies of adult perceptions of Black boys. In 2014, for example, research by Professor Phillip Goff and colleagues revealed that beginning at the age of 10, Black boys are more likely than their white peers to be misperceived as older, viewed as guilty of suspected crimes, and face police violence if accused of a crime.

Download

Healthy Women Rock: How to Live the Life You Desire & Deserve, Lose Weight and Control Negative Thoughts

Madeline & Terahshea McCray, Self-Published, 2011, Self-help

Healthy Women Rock, is a well-organized tome of wisdom. Centered with the Madeline McCray’s personal narrative and affirming (slightly Auntie-esque) tone, the book exceeds its aim of empowering women to live their best lives. Early on, the primary author states, “[t]he journey to living the life you desire and deserve begins with your mindset. However, it doesn’t stop there. The journey is a holistic one […] There is simply no way to separate your need to be healthy from your wealth, creativity, leadership ability, or any other facet of your full expression” (p. 19). In the pages that follow, the McCrays use relatable personal narrative to provide readers with realistic and guided strategies toward achieving holistic wellness.

Madeline McCray relates several episodes in her life to ground her readers’ attention and engage them in dialogue. McCray, for example, starts the chapter “Change Your Life, Change Your Finances” with a searing account of her experience with domestic violence. She recounts, “There I was, curled in a fetal position with eyes swollen shut from the open palm blows that had landed over them the night before” (p.70). She goes on to use this experience to reveal vulnerabilities related to financial insecurity, dependence, and generational trauma. By starting at this place, her recommendations about strategic thinking, and unlearning toxic behaviors, not only resonate, but are particularly poignant. Through each personal account, McCray’s wisdom and sense of yearning to set women free on their terms is imbued with well-developed strength. Furthermore, McCray does well to include the personal stories of other women and a man to bring depth and wider perspective to the text.

Overall, I recommend this text. It reads well, is highly engaging, and meets its overall objective. There are a few areas of further refinement, but these do not impede the content or derail the message. These include: 1) use of contractions throughout the text (stylistic preference); 2) size, color and positionality of photos (enlarge and use color, if possible); 3) title (shorten by removing “Lose Weight and Control Negative Thoughts), as the introduction and first chapter provide a captivating rationale for the book’s aims.

Visit Link

I AM ENOUGH

SHAKEDRA ‘LYRIC’ JENERETTE, Memoir/Biography/Autobiography

I AM ENOUGH chronicles the story of Shakedra ‘Lyric’ Jenerettes’ journey from paternal abandonment, rape, relationship betrayals, mental breakdown, sexual promiscuity, and single motherhood to learning to love and forgive herself. It’s extremely honest and transparent. She did not withhold the naming of incidents, situations and mindsets that impacted her life. For example, she begins by sharing about the mental breakdown she suffered, and how it was the “freest” she ever felt.

“There have been moments in my life that I literally lost my mind in every clinical sense of the phrase. In those moments I was the most free. Free to be honest, wounded, relaxed. I was happy until I again found my mind wrapped up in one of those all too familiar boxes offered so freely by society.”

The book is filled with “revelation” gems, particularly in the poems ending each chapter. The poems are riveting, and capture her sentiments while painting vivid and lasting mental / emotional images for the reader. Her use of simile, metaphors, and analogies in her poetry is quite ingenius and powerful. That said, while she brings up interesting topics, she often robs the reader of acquiring the full story, or a sense of textual closure because she doesn’t expound on points that drive the chapter’s theme. There are points of stagnation and sometimes a lack of key points of resolution.

For readers who are looking for stories from the African American, Christian, woman perspective, this story might be encouraging. At the very least, those readers will find some contentment in knowing they are not alone when it comes to issues related to rape, low self-esteem, and redemption.

Visit Link

Pages: 12345678910111213