Crawford exposes the double standards applied to male and female sexuality that enables victim blaming. Yet, after her assault rumours begin spreading and Crawford is labelled a ‘slut’ and ostracised by her friend and fellow students. Although Crawford’s vision of this rarefied world is far from idealistic, she also writes about the friendships she formed at St. Paul’s, a place predominantly attended by the children of WASP families. She recreates the atmosphere and toxic culture of St. The physical violence of the assault is followed by a different kind of violence when the school, more concerned with its own reputation than pursuing the matter, silences her.Ĭrawford revisits the assault, the months that led up to it and what followed. Paul’s School, an elite boarding school in New Hampshire, where, at the age of fifteen, she was sexually assaulted by two older students, both of whom went unpunished and were able to graduate with awards. With clarity and precision, Crawford describes her time at St. Notes on a Silencing is a profoundly poignant memoir and a deeply moving account of a young girl’s sexual assault and its aftermath.
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