Speak & The Feminization of the Victim Roles in Books

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a book I read two years ago over the summer. The recent conversation with RACES in health class reignited my interest in this book (definitely not partly because I didn’t finish the book I’m currently reading…). To me, this book left an indelible impact: it was really the first book that pulled me out of my innocent, fairy-tale world and exposed me to the real world, which is not purely so radiant and joyful, but also not completely gloomy and wicked.

In short, Speak circles around the freshman Melinda being sexually assaulted at a party at her friend’s house immediately before the fall semester. In panic, she calls the police who come and ruin the whole party. Once school starts, Melinda comes to a similar fate to Hester, from The Scarlet Letter, she finds herself ostracized and widely discussed. As the novel explores themes of trauma and isolation, it shows the importance of speaking up. Readers were shown the bystander effect and the horrific power and consequences of rumors. Luckily, through the little warmth she picked up from other characters, Melinda eventually pieces herself back together and becomes empowered to raise her voice in the end against her perpetrator. 

As both Speak and The Scarlet Letter both show a tendency of authors to portray a young lady being the victim of some traumatic violence (particularly something related to sex), this recurring theme sparked my curiosity about the underlying reasons behind it.

After a little internet search, I think I found my answer in an article published by BBC in 2019. The article discussed the concerns around the Staunch Book Prize (awards for thriller novels) that only shortlisted books that depict non-physical or sexual violence towards women. As some people commend it for challenging stereotypes of portraying women as the victims, others accuse it of ignoring social realities. Out of most opinions, I found myself most resonating with Samantha Harvey—a British writer who made this year's shortlist, and Dr. Rashmi Varma—a professor of feminist literary theory at the University of Warwick. Here is a simplified and merged version of their arguments:

“If violent crimes in most books against women are just being done at a default position, to meet readers’ expectations, it should be challenged. But if authors represent violence to critique it, to expose how it works to undermine women, then it is important to represent it and should be seen. The true intention matters.”

Thank you for reading :)

Ruijing