Sunday, May 10, 2020

[Review] Support by Cindy Crabb

Support: Feminist Relationship Tools to Heal Yourself and End Rape Culture




Title: Support: Feminist Relationship Tools to Heal Yourself and End Rape Culture
Author: Cindy Crabb
Publisher: Microcosm Publishing
Publishing Date: November 28th, 2017
Pages: 64



Support encourages everyone to take a step back, listen, think, and talk about sex, consent, violence, and abuse. If you or someone you know have ever been assaulted or victimized, how to be an ally can be confusing. These words and the connection they offer can help.


With ideas and encouragement to help yourself and others cope with, prevent, and end sexual violence and abuse, this collection of personal experiences, advice, guest articles, and comic excerpts wants to help.


This new edition turns the popular zine by Cindy Crabb into a book. Cover illustration by Cristy C. Road.




4 Triquetras for this zine-turned-book!

I've got another review from Microcosm Publishing here! I recently bought this book without knowing that I bought this book. Microcosm has several deals that allow you to spend a flat rate and they pick out books for you. I've done this twice so far, and both times have received books that are both for me, and not for me. This book was one of those books, for me, and not for me.

Without getting too heavy and into it I, like many other women in the United States, have dealt with sexual trauma. I won't share all the details of my own journey as this is neither the time, nor the venue to do such things, but I think it's important to disclose that so I can share my thoughts on the book as a survivor, which is who the book is for.

This started out as a zine and you can tell by the formating- lots of handwritten pages, some cut and pasted layouts, some comics/illustrations. This reads more as a collection of notes passed among friends and shoved into a scrapbook of "it's ok, me too, we'll get through this, this is what I did, this is what helps, this is what doesn't."

It was really nice to read experiences from other people. It was nice to learn how to talk to other people who have held onto trauma, who may not have gotten over things, or progressed as much on their path of healing, like I have.

I love the idea, and the concept, but something just feels lacking for me. Since this is a collection of smaller pieces, instead of one narrator, one voice through it all, it seems to jump all over the place, and some pieces work for me, some didn't. There's beauty in this format, but because of the heavy topic, I would have liked to see a little more structure and support throughout the book.

Overall, if you're someone who is ready for healing, ready to dive in (a little, this is only 64 pages after all) then this will be the book for you. Note that there are heavy themes, that it may be triggering for those who aren't ready for such a journey.




About the Author


Cindy Crabb is the author of the long running, autobiographical feminist zine Doris and she has written for numerous books and magazines, including We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists, the Utne Reader, Experiencing Abortion: A Weaving of Women's Words, A Girl's Guide to Taking Over the World: Writing from the Girl Zine Revolution, and is featured in Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism. She is the editor of Support and Learning Good Consent and is a sexual assault survivor advocate.

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