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I'm reading a novel called The Sirens as my first book of 2026.
The instigating premise is that a young woman (first year university) sleeps with a guy in her class and eventually is convinced to send him a nude photo (a pretty big deal, as she has a devastating skin condition). He shares it with his buddies, it gets posted on TikTok, she complains, the school tells her "to think of his future!" (all normal and expected). Then she sleepwalks, enters his dorm and tries to strangle him in his sleep (totally understandable), but it freaks her out, so she runs away.
Anyway, the part that has made it stick with me is about half way through. She's finally started to read her email from the school and she's been suspended due to his complaint about her. And in parenthesis, like it's a just a throwaway thought, is the line "She's willing to bet no one told Ben to think about her future when he complained".
And oh, that line made me angry. Because of course they didn't, not just in the world of the book, but in the real world. But what would that look like if they did apply the same language to a complaint placed by a man. How shocking would that be? Why aren't we shocked when it happens to women.
All that to say the world is a sucky place and I'm willing to fight to make it change.
The instigating premise is that a young woman (first year university) sleeps with a guy in her class and eventually is convinced to send him a nude photo (a pretty big deal, as she has a devastating skin condition). He shares it with his buddies, it gets posted on TikTok, she complains, the school tells her "to think of his future!" (all normal and expected). Then she sleepwalks, enters his dorm and tries to strangle him in his sleep (totally understandable), but it freaks her out, so she runs away.
Anyway, the part that has made it stick with me is about half way through. She's finally started to read her email from the school and she's been suspended due to his complaint about her. And in parenthesis, like it's a just a throwaway thought, is the line "She's willing to bet no one told Ben to think about her future when he complained".
And oh, that line made me angry. Because of course they didn't, not just in the world of the book, but in the real world. But what would that look like if they did apply the same language to a complaint placed by a man. How shocking would that be? Why aren't we shocked when it happens to women.
All that to say the world is a sucky place and I'm willing to fight to make it change.
