Article:
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Beyond Rape |
Author:
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Joanna Connors |
Source:
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The Plain Dealer
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Date:
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May 4, 2008
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Format:
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Long feature
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Excerpts from a May 2008 email interview with The Plain Dealer’s Joanna Connors, author of "Beyond Rape":
| Q: |
What did you hope to do with this piece? Do you think you accomplished your goal? |
| A: |
I wanted to make sense of what had happened to me, and of my long-term response to it. I was ashamed of being a victim, but I was also ashamed of carrying this with me for so long, and never honestly dealing with it.
That's why I decided to find out about the rapist's history and family: I wanted to understand what led him to do this, and why our paths collided in violence. I also wanted to take back control of my story from the rapist, and realized I could do that by using the reporting tools I had used on so many other stories.
I accomplished much more than I expected with the search: The journey took me across the boundary of the two Americas, which I had only crossed as a reporter, on news stories. This time it was personal, and longer term. I established a bond with the rapist's sisters, who had also suffered and also needed to tell their stories.
That I was a victim was random, of course, a matter of bad luck and bad timing. That he was a criminal and a rapist was not random; he was the product of a cycle of violence. The piece turned into a story of what parents pass on to our children, and about the immense privilege of birth that we on this side of the boundary take for granted.
I also wanted to tell my story for other survivors of rape. Most of us have very similar responses to our rape: shame, self-blame, a wall of silence. I was a fairly public person — I was the film critic for the paper for a very long time, and I had a column for several years [that ran with] a photo. I wanted to show that we don't have to keep it secret, and that by telling we can remove the feeling of shame. So in that sense, it was a story about the power of telling stories.
I accomplished that beyond my most hopeful expectations. I have heard from hundreds of rape survivors, many of whom never told anyone. Three women in the newsroom alone told me about their rapes, and their feeling that they should not talk about it. |
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| Q: |
Did you conceive of it in your head as a project from the beginning, or did you find your personal search evolving into a desire to do the project? |
| A: |
It started as a book project. I told my editor, Stuart Warner, about it; he had edited a few of my other narrative pieces. I asked him to read chapters as I went along. A few months later, our new editor, Susan Goldberg arrived, heard about the book, and asked me to write it first for the paper. She took a big risk, and did it in a very big way: She decided to publish it as a stand-alone section of 16 broadsheet pages. Anyone who works for a newspaper in this era of expensive newsprint and routine cutting of stories knows how extraordinary that is. |
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| Q: |
What were the particular challenges of the project? |
| A: |
Debbie Van Tassel became my editor on the project, and had to keep telling me: This story is about you and your search. It is not about the rapist. In other words, I was uncomfortable putting myself at the center of the story.
I also found it hard to write about the issues of race and poverty. These are such touchy and complicated subjects for all Americans — so complicated, I usually tiptoe carefully around them. I decided I had to deal with my feelings with complete honesty, and not worry about how I would look to readers. But of course I did worry.
I was even more concerned about exposing my children and husband to public scrutiny. After all, I chose to write the story, but they did not. When Susan Goldberg asked me to write the story for the paper, I told her I would do it only if she would give my family full veto power. I think she was relieved that I asked for that — she was as concerned about them as I was.
I talked to all three of them about my reasons for writing the story, asked for their permission, and continued to ask for it as the story progressed. They read drafts as I went along, and read the final version. They never asked for a single change.
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| Q: |
Was there anything you wanted to include but couldn't/didn't? |
| A: |
A great deal of our work — after figuring out structure — was cutting. I had a lot more material about the aftermath of the rape, and several characters with great stories whom I had to cut out completely. And it was still 20,000 words! |
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| Q: |
Is there anything else you want to say about the project? |
| A: |
We all worried that the story would touch off angry reactions from readers. After all, we gave them a long menu of items that have always brought negative responses — race, class, rape, sex, the criminal justice system — and we put them all in one story!
So we cut of comments on the Web site, established a separate email account, and braced for the onslaught.
It never happened. The responses are now nearing 1000, and we have had four negatives, I think. This is unprecedented at The Plain Dealer. I used to get more that that from a single movie review. |
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© 2008 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College