Read on Twitter
I recently received a long and (I think) well meant email from a psychotherapist who (I believe) is not Jewish. I am sharing screenshots with his identity redacted in this thread bc I think we need to talk about this.
First of all, while it is not the whole of this exchange, I did note that this man signed his email with his title and full credentials and addressed me by my first name. I am too familiar with that move not to know what it means. But in any case, let us move on to the substance
So, first of all, let me note that as a trauma survivor who has written extensively about my traumas, I believe it is condescension of the finest order to other artists and survivors to provide the kind of signaling this man believes I should provide in an artistic space.
As a trauma survivor? Put out your call and I will read your work and ask around about you. Don't fucking try to tell me what is and is not safe FOR ME. Let me make that call and I promise I will be less likely to trust you the more overtly you signal that you are "safe."
And NEVER, under any circumstances, bring up my trauma as my trauma in the artistic space. Refer to "the narrator," talk about CRAFT. The editors at The Rumpus have always taken care to do this with me and it is one reason I have always felt safe with them.
MOVING ON. The idea for the volume was conceived in concert and behind the scenes with the voices of Jews he seems to think I am profiting (?) off of to create this volume.
So let me be very clear. I am paying writers primarily out of my savings, because this volume is important to me, as someone on the margins of Jewish community and friends with those on the margins. I do not expect this volume to make any money. I MAY break even. Maybe.
It is UNBELIEVABLY gatekeeping and condescending to act as though a CFP should position itself as managing the emotional labor of authors. That infantilizes the authors, to say the very least.
This man says that I have traumatized his patients because they view this as "heretic porn." To those patients, I say that I can promise you this is not about voyeurism or profiteering for me. It is about putting your and my experiences in the open without shame, as art.
The genesis for this volume came years ago, after I tried to help a friend sell their art to traditional Judaica stores, only to be told it was "too heretical," and more recently by being told I could only give a dvar for the yamim noraim if it was not "provocative."
You can trust me, or don't. But believe that I will respect your art as ART, as CRAFT, as RIGOR, and not something to be therapized or emotionally managed within the artistic space. That is not the work we do together.
