Introduction to the Story
Frightening & Female
The Stories We Tell is a collection of vignettes that capture the familiar truths of being a woman. Full of supernatural and whimsical myths, steeped in legal realities, the collection attempts to blur the line between past and present. The stories capture the disturbing psychologies of "becoming a woman" in the modern era and force readers to recognize the characters' voices (and silence) as interchangeable with their own.
About the Author
Nicole Tsuno is a graduating senior at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. During her three years of undergraduate studies, she pursued a major in political science and two minors: writing and history of law & policy.
Nicole has been interested in law since middle school. She made that interest official by purchasing her first pocket Constitution and obtaining a discarded torts casebook from her public library. During high school, she helped teach a naturalization class and was a member of her school's competition civics team.
In college, Nicole combined her interests of writing, law, and feminism together. She is a member of the university's Immigrant Justice Lab, and helps research country conditions for asylum claims. She hopes to continue pursuing these interests through a J.D./PhD degree.
Additional Resources
Legal Background
The Laws that Inspired the Story
"She must follow the natural instinct of every proud female to resist, by more than mere words, the violation of her person by a stranger or an unwelcomed friend. She must make it plain that she regards such sexual acts as abhorrent and repugnant to her natural sense of pride."
State v. Rusk 424 A.2d 720 (Md. 1981).
"That for the purpose of properly identifying Chinese laborers who were in the United States on the 17th day of November, 1880, or who shall have come into the same before the expiration of ninety days next after the passage of this act, and in order to furnish them with the proper evidence of their right to go from and come to the United States of their free will and accord..."
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act (Sess. I, Chap. 126; 22 Stat. 58)
"The alien spouse of an American citizen by a marriage occurring before thirty days after the enactment of this Act, shall not be considered as inadmissible because of race, if otherwise admissible under this Act."
Public Law 213 (1947), An Act To amend section 3 of the War Brides Act of 1946 (Public Law 534)
"Evidence of a victim's sexual conduct shall not be admissible in a prosecution for an offense or an attempt to commit an offense defined in article one hundred thirty of the penal law unless such evidence:proves or tends to prove that the victim has been convicted of an offense under section 230.00 of the penal law within three years prior to the sex offense which is the subject of the prosecution"
New York Rape Shield Law (1975), Criminal Procedure Code § 60.42
"In a civil case, evidence offered to prove the sexual behavior or sexual predisposition of any alleged victim is admissible if it is otherwise admissible under these rules and its probative value substantially outweighs the danger of harm to any victim and of unfair prejudice to any party. Evidence of an alleged victim’s reputation is admissible only if it has been placed in controversy by the alleged victim."
Federal Rules of Evidence 412(A)(B)(2)
"As for all other Crime Index offenses, complaints of forcible rape made to law enforcement agencies are sometimes found to be false or baseless. In such cases, law enforcement agencies ‘unfound’ the offenses and exclude them from crime counts. The ‘unfounded’ rate, or percentage of complaints determined through investigation to be false, is higher for forcible rape than for any other Index crime. In 1995, 8 percent of forcible rape complaints were ‘unfounded,’ while the average for all Index crimes was 2 percent."
Fedreal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Report, 1995.
"For without an excitation of lust, or the enjoyment of pleasure in the venereal act, no conception can probably take place. So that if an absolute rape were to be perpetrated, it is not likely she would become pregnant."
Samuel Farr, The Elements of Medical Jurisprudence (1785)
Further Reading
Erika Lee, At America's Gates.
Ch. 6 on the Paper Family System
Martha Gardener, The Qualities of a Citizen.
Ch. 12 on War Brides and Immigration Interviews, Ch. 13 on Marriage and Morality
Ange-Marie Hancock, The Politics of Disgust: The Public Identity of the Welfare Queen.
Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race & Class.
Ch. 11 "Rape, Racism and the Myth of the Black Rapist."
