(When "Exit Wound" was released as a single, before Chapter 2 was released and prior to Manson releasing the artwork and commentary that accompany the song, I wrote my initial thoughts about it, titled " The Scar Left After the Spectacle: Marilyn Manson Releases New Single and Announces New Album ." Without repeating too much of what was written there, the following was written in light of the new information provided with the release of the whole album.) An exit wound is the mark left by something that has passed through the body. It is evidence of an injury, but also of movement: something entered, passed through, and left its mark behind. In Marilyn Manson's “Exit Wound,” the image takes on a much larger meaning. The speaker does not merely describe himself as someone who has been wounded. He identifies himself with the wound itself: “You shot the world I am the exit wound.” It is a strange identification. The speaker is not simply the victim of an attack; he...
As waves of sexual assault accusations against powerful figures in entertainment, politics, and business surfaced, which led to a growing public recognition of the widespread nature of sexual assault in American culture, some activists went a step further and fought for legal protections for abuse survivors. On February 27, 2018 Evan Rachel Wood appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to testify about her experiences with sexual assault on behalf of the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act, which went into effect at the federal level in 2016 but still needed to be implemented in all 50 states. The law gives sexual abuse survivors the right to have their rape kit preserved for the entire duration of the statute of limitations (or up to 20 years), as well as the right to know their forensic results. EVAN RACHEL WOOD'S 2018 TESTIMONY ABOUT BEING RAPED AND TORTURED BY UNNAMED ABUSER My name is Evan Rachel Wood and I am an artist. But I am also a domestic violence and sexu...