The Way We Survive

‘This book will often hurt. It will make you angry, it will make you feel. My hope is that this hurt, this anger and these feelings will move you to change the way we talk about surviving sexual violence.’

Sexual violence is an epidemic happening across all intersections of society, impacting every one of us. In the aftermath of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, a cultural conversation has been ignited about the prevalence, immediate impact and long-term effects that sexual violence has on people. It has begun conversations on sexism, misogyny, consent and trauma. From the entertainment industry to governments; from India to the USA, people are beginning to listen to the pain survivors have been living with forever.

Writing from her own experiences and those she has met through her podcast and her work as an activist, Catriona Morton will approach topics of consent and education, the mental and physical health of survivors, the cultural shift concerning attitudes surrounding sexual violence, the impact of politics and governmental cuts to survivors in the UK as well as the realities of subjects such as dating and reclaiming sexuality in the aftermath of sexual violence.

With unflinching honesty and surprising moments of humour, Catriona wants to change the narrative around survivors, and to force us to reconsider the ways in which we talk about surviving sexual violence.

Author Biography

Catriona Morton is a twenty-three-year-old writer, activist and podcaster based in London. Catriona is the host of the BBC Sounds podcast After: Surviving Sexual Assault and the founder of the survivor-centred blog/resource sharing website, Life Continues After (www.lifecontinuesafter.com). Catriona founded both of these platforms as a space for survivors of sexual trauma to come together to share their stories and the things that have helped them to cope with what’s happened in their lives.

Catriona is also a facilitator as part of the ‘Against Sexual Violence’ campaign at her current university, Goldsmiths University of London, where she is studying a Master’s in Gender, Media and Cultural. Through this she has received complete training from Rape Crisis on rape, consent, and active bystandership.