By Kelcie McKenney
Vagina.
There, I said it. Was that so hard?
This semester, for a Performance and Installation Art class, I decided to build a giant, cozy vagina in order to press people to think differently about the female genitalia.
Domestic Violence: More Prevalent Than You Think
By Kelcie McKenney
One-in-three women have been victims of domestic violence.
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), one-third of women have been victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime. For men, it is one-in-four. Those types of statistics paint a vivid picture for the reality of unhealthy relationships: they’re far more common than you’d think.
“In an unhealthy relationship there almost always tends to be a power dynamic in place and the person who’s being abusive, whether it’s emotionally or psychologically or physically, makes it pretty much impossible for that other partner to be able to win any kind of argument,” said Becky Redetzke Field, the University of Minnesota Aurora Center Legal Advocacy Coordinator.
Photo by Lorna Scubelek
If you have to tell yourself something isn’t “that bad,” then it really is worse than you think
By Catcall Contributor
I couldn’t help it; I fell in love.
And when I fell in love, there was a part of me that became him. I didn’t think of it as a bad thing, after all if I’m spending all my time with someone and talking to them every day, it would be hard not to mesh into a single being, to some extent. He was older, successful, and absolutely beautiful. He always said he hated being the center of attention, but I think he knew that’s where he thrived. He was a natural born leader and made everyone look up to him with the highest regards. He truly seemed like a great man.
But things aren’t always what they seem. I got to know him better and he told me about his troubled past full of being adopted, bullied, anger management classes, manipulative relationships, and lies. He told me that he would never do anything to hurt me because he knew what it was like to be hurt—but then the lies started.
Photo by Luis Galvez
I’m Trying To Remember
By Kelcie McKenney
Photo by Felipe Luiz
I’m trying to remember all of the bad things
So my heart stops hurting so damn much
The absence of you left this big gaping hole
A hole that keeps sucking, sucking, sucking parts of me away
Like I’ve misplaced too much of myself and I don’t know how to find it
Like parts of me are lost forever
Will that hole in my chest ever heal?
Or will my heart beat one beat off until the day I die?
Losing you was worse than I thought
Grudge
By Hope Grey
Photo by Cherry Laithang
I cannot remember the date
Of which I was last raped
I believe I was eight,
When my virtue was at stake
When my soul left its gate
When a serpent took my fate
No, I cannot remember when
But I do remember the sin
I remember the choice that was stolen
And the heart, which remains broken.
Hope Grey
Catcall 