This short zine combines two excellent resources on sexual assault: the article “We Are All Survivors, We Are All Perpetrators” from the Crimethinc publication Rolling Thunder and a piece titled “What To Do When Someone Tells You That You Violated Their Boundaries, Made Them Feel Uncomfortable, Or Committed Assault (A Start).” Both offer important ideas for beginning discussions about sexual assault from a perspective that brings the issue into the open rather than keeping it hidden in the shadows.

If we could develop a way of addressing these situations that focused on promoting communication and understanding rather than establishing who is in the wrong, it might make it easier for those who commit boundary violations to hear and learn from criticism and less stressful for those whose boundaries are crossed to address these instances. Whenever a person feels that his or her desires have not been respected, regardless of whether or not a court of law would find there to be sufficient evidence to substantiate charges of sexual assault, all those involved in the situation need to hold themselves accountable for the ways they have not communicated with or respected each other and work out how to make sure it never happens again.