These Hands Don't Hurt

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

The Women’s Center hosts events throughout the month of October to raise awareness of the prevalence and impact of Domestic Violence, and share resources and strategies to support those who have experienced Domestic Violence. Domestic Violence can occur in many different forms of abuse including physical, sexual, emotional, and economic. Domestic Violence is often hidden from public view and can be difficult for a victim/survivor to leave. Domestic violence can affect anyone regardless of age, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, or ability.

Every October, join us for a variety of DVAM events including peer-facilitated learning opportunities, educational workshops, activism and healing through art, film screenings, podcasts and/or discussions.

Together, we can take a stand against Domestic Violence.

Calendar of Events

In the News

The Silent Witness Project – The Technician

Women’s Center celebrates Love Your Body Day – The Technician

Reading Selections

 

Carmen Maria Machado, In the DreamHouse (2019). This memoir from queer American feminist writer Carmen Maria Machado delves into the abusive relationship that Machado experienced with a fellow graduate student. Machado’s work takes an experimental form to account for the lack of representation of violence in queer women’s sexual relationships with each other.

Buchi Emecheta, Second-Class Citizen (1974). Emecheta is a Nigerian feminist novelist, whose representation of a Nigerian immigrant in England still feels groundbreaking. Adah moves to England after her husband and, in this new country where racism and class severely constrain their lives, their relationship becomes increasingly violent. The novel traces the patriarchal experience across the two countries and Adah’s increasing desperation as she becomes the sole provider for her children.

Sean Thor Conroe, Fuccboi (2022). This novel manages to be both serious and hilarious at the same time. Conroe, a Japanese-American novelist, tells the story of a young man, Sean, trying to figure out what it means to be a man and a writer while struggling to make ends meet. The novel includes a powerful scene where Sean intervenes in a domestic violence situation, lending significance to the novel’s struggle with masculinity.

Rachel Louise Snyder, No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us (2019). Snyder’s nonfiction book about the ways domestic violence is turned into a “private” issue but is really a public crisis is a challenging read. The book is told through the prism of one story of a domestic violence murder-suicide that illustrates the dangers of trying to leave an abusive environment, in this case a young, working-class woman with two small children. Powerfully indicts communities, police, and families in their inability to understand support victims of domestic violence.

Lexie Bean, ed. Written on the Body: Letters from Trans and Non-Binary Survivors of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence (2019). Bean edits a ground-breaking anthology that collects writing from trans and non-binary survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. It includes personal narratives as well as poetry and other artistic works that explore the impact of DV on the body and on perceptions of oneself.

 

Support is Available

** If you or someone you know is experiencing relationship violence, sexual violence, stalking or any other form of interpersonal violence and are in need of advocacy services, the NC State Women’s Center has trained advocates available to offer crisis intervention, emotional support, resources, and referrals. Students can contact the 24/7 Sexual Assault Helpline at 919-515-4444 or ncsuadvocate@ncsu.edu to make an appointment with an advocate.

Advocacy services through the NC State Women’s Center are available for all students inclusive of all gender identities and sexual orientations.

For more information on advocacy services, please visit go.ncsu.edu/supportsurvivors. You may also visit go.ncsu.edu/safe for additional information on resources and reporting options.