‘Know my Name is the perfect title of a memoir that originally seeks to keep its author anonymous while hinting that something more is in the making. It is the story of a sexual assault victim who chose to hide behind a made-up name in order to disguise her real self from the shame, dishonor and regret common to someone who is thought to have acted wrongly. As “Emily Doe,” Chanel Miller eventually reclaims her real name, and in doing so, adds herself as one among those who have thus far come to constitute the #MeToo movement.
As a 23-year-old university graduate, Chanel is assaulted behind the house where a fraternity party is held. Her assailant, Brock Turner, is chased away by two men who happen to bicycle past the dumpster where Turner had sought to have his way with Chanel, who had drunk enough alcohol to leave herself temporarily unconscious. A student and swimmer at Stanford University, Turner is thought to be an Olympic hopeful, and the subsequent court event earns the moniker the “Stanford swimmer case.”
When the men who came to her aid left her to the safety of police, Miller was taken to the hospital where she was administered a rape kit. At the time, she had pine needles in her hair, her underwear was missing and she had debris in her vagina. But the aftereffects of the incident were far more telling: in the year between her assault and the trial, she had panic attacks, was dissociative and was left to cope with feelings of explosive rage.
While she awaits trial, Miller quits her job in order to do stand-up comedy, which serves to distract her from the stark difficulties she faces at the time.
Miller’s writing style is exquisite. She wastes no words in telling her gripping tale and at times her writing reads like prose-poetry. Just to read her work seems enough of a reward in itself.
In court, Chanel faces vigorous questioning which seeks to uproot her integrity and cast aspersion upon her character. Questions like: When did you drink? How much did you drink? What container did you drink out of? Who dropped you off at this party? What were you wearing? Why were you going to his party? Where did you urinate? These questions and others like them seemed designed to knock her off stride while she testified on her own behalf. Also, she was often required to attend court when her assailant was present, the fact of which required of her to steel her nerves.
In the end, Brock is found guilty on three felony counts and is sentenced to a jail sentence of six months, three of which he serves. At his sentencing, Chanel, who is an artist and a writer, reads a 7,000-word letter to him. In time, the letter is read aloud by congresswomen in the House of Representatives and in response, California’s laws for sexual assault are amended to support future victims. Yet, this is not the only good that comes out of this intriguing story, as the letter is published on BuzzFeed and goes viral, receiving 15 million views within a week.