“In case he K!lls me”: Reading Literally as a Lifesaving Act
There is a viral video that circulated among old and young women across social media platforms that registers the risk–the actual real, embodied, material risk–that young women on dating apps undertake, signed with the hashtag #girlhood:
“me: Hey girly, im going on a date with this guy, i shared my location in case he K!lls me.
Bestie: no worries, have a great time, love you.”
…let’s speak of precisely what troubles us…
Nancy, Jean-Luc. The Fragile Skin of the World. Polity Press, 2021. (xii)
Why do we still not have a word to describe the entirely specific and recognizable feeling this evokes, this shotgun to the face bang - bang - bang - bang of recognition horror amusement resignation? This momentary feeling of awakening, where we can plainly see the monstrosity of what is, and then the spreading warm narcosis as we are gently put back to sleep and accept it? The viral video, with 35 thousand likes, 4.3 thousand comments, and 1.7 thousand forwards did not launch a single instance of change in the world. No masses rushing to the streets, banging on pots and pans. No sex strikes. No worries, have a great time. “C’est triste, c’est dommage, mais, c’est comme ca,” as I once overheard a waitress explaining to customers how their foie gras was made by nailing the goose’s feet to the floor and force feeding them until their livers nearly explode.
In the introduction to their book on rape and representation, Lynn Higgens and Nancy Miller “obsessive inscription—and an obsessive erasure—of sexual violence against women (and against those placed by society in the position of "woman") (Higgins and Miller 2). #Girlhood: remembering & forgetting loving & being killed in the same goddamn breath.