My Dear Rapist

<p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>This book is much more than a manuscript it's difficult to define because it brings so many conflicts with institutions and women's societal religious expectations and toxic ideals into play. It is very easy to see my own struggles within the book and the ability to reflect honestly that many of these struggles shaped us as women... - </span><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Michelle Jensen Talley Kansas Dept of Health and Environment</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Ginger Price was a twenty-eight-year-old virgin and did not understand the basic mechanics of sex. In addition to abstaining from spreading her legs Ginger avoided coffee tea and alcohol like the good Mormon girl she was raised to be. She believed that by avoiding these things she was honoring God and in turn God would protect her from the fiery darts of Satan and the human evils of the world. Imagine how utterly disillusioned she felt when her Mormon God did not protect her from the rape and abuse at the hands of a US Olympic athlete and actor in Hollywood.</span></p><p></p><p><em style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>My Dear Rapist</em><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)> is a collection of 43 letters to Ginger's rapist that illustrate how a sheltered upbringing in Mormonism led to a woman's worst nightmare.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Through her letters Ginger humanizes herself to her rapist while chronicling the growth and transformation that came from battling misogyny and shame that is so easily found within a patriarchal high-demand religion. Ginger's narrative exposes a vital need for open-minded safe and healthy conversations surrounding sex so that women can make better-informed decisions about their sex lives and be kept safe from gender-based violence. My Dear Rapist adds to the ongoing cultural conversations about what is sexual trauma and abuse and highlights how the cages of misogyny oppress women keeping them silent and tamed within phallocentric subscribed gender roles.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>One such cage Ginger had subscribed to was the beliefs surrounding societal rape myths that kept her complacent for nearly two decades in her own abuse. By seeking inward and shutting out the voices that had informed her on how she should act and who she should be Ginger was able to find freedom through shattering harmful worldviews and ultimately end her silence on sexual trauma.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Ginger's audience of 40 million people who have left a high-demand religion in the last 25 years and the millions of victims and survivors who have endured rape and sexual assault will find empowerment in Ginger's story as they switch the narrative and stake the claim that they own their abuser they own their healing and they own their story. They can learn that the stitching of physical emotional and spiritual abuse can unravel when they discover their own language to safely speak about their wounds.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Told through a lens of raw vulnerability courage and even candor My Dear Rapist is a gripping story of tenacity hope and transformation. Each descriptive letter with its unique sign-off highlights a bold and empowering statement that Ginger's rapist will never ever own her again.</span></p>