Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson is the novel that made her name. Published back in 1999, the book tells the story of a girl coping in the aftermath of being raped. Despite being almost twenty years old, the novel still has great relevance today as consent is still an issue, highlighted by the recent MeToo movement.
Speak is one of the most widely read books about rape and is even taught in schools across the US. Even today Laurie Halse Anderson visits schools with her work for RAINN to talk about the book’s message, and even today she is surprised at the responses she gets.
In 2013, Halse Anderson told the Atlantic “I was shocked when I realized how ignorant boys are about this. It became clear in 2002, after five years of pretty heavy school visits, and people putting the book into the curriculum. In every single demographic—country, city, suburban, various economic classes, ethnic backgrounds—I’d go into a class and talk about the book. And usually by the end, a junior boy would say, ‘I love the book, but I really didn’t get why she was so upset.’ I heard that so many times. The first couple dozen times I sort of freaked, and then I got down from my judgmental podium and started to ask questions. It became clear that teen boys don’t understand what rape is.”
In her school talks, Halse Anderson says that she has found that the necessity for informed consent is not widely understood among boys. She says “When you tell teen boys that if they have sex with a woman who is under the influence of alcohol or drugs, they can be charged with rape, they’re like, what?”
While those quotes are part of an interview Halse Anderson gave back in 2013, it’s clear that there is still room for change and improvement and that we’re still not having the right conversations with our children. Research on the book has shown that reading it really does change the way children view rape and rape culture, so if you’re looking for a way to approach this subject with your own children, add Speak to your reading list!
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