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Jessica Taylor (author)

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Jessica Taylor
Born
Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England
EducationBSc Psychology Hons, 2015, Open University
PhD, forensic psychology, 2019, University of Birmingham
Known forCampaigning for the rights of victims

Jessica Taylor FRSA is a British feminist author and campaigner. Taylor is the author of the 2020 book Why Women Are Blamed For Everything. She has made appearances on British television, including BBC Two documentary Womanhood,[1] and in the true crime documentary My Lover, My Killer, which aired on Channel Five.[2]

Early life

Taylor grew up in a council estate in Stoke-on-Trent.[3] She said that she was repeatedly sexually and physically abused as a teenager by men in her town, which she kept hidden from her family. As the result of her repeated rapes, Taylor gave birth to her first child at the age of 17 and reported her abuse to the police.[3]

Career

Taylor began volunteering with domestic violence victims before deciding to earn her Bachelor of Science Hons degree in psychology from the Open University.[4] Upon receiving her degree, Taylor co-founded The Eaton Foundation, the first Male Mental Health and Wellbeing Centre in the UK, with Alex Eaton.[5] She eventually quit her job and founded VictimFocus, which she describes as "a company designed to challenge and change the victim blaming practices in social care, policing, mental health and support services all over the world."[6] In 2017 and 2018, she was shortlisted for the Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize.[7][8]

In 2019, Taylor completed her PhD in forensic psychology from the University of Birmingham with a thesis titled ‘Logically, I know I’m not to blame but I still feel to blame’: exploring and measuring victim blaming and self-blame of women who have been subjected to sexual violence.[9] While working towards her doctoral degree, Taylor was appointed to Chair of the Parliamentary Conference on Violence Against Women and Girls.[10] Upon finishing her doctoral research, Taylor became a Senior Lecturer in Criminal and Forensic Psychology.[11] She was later recognized for her "contribution to the psychology of victim blaming of women, her work in mental health and her contribution to feminism" by the Royal Society of Arts.[12]

In 2020, Taylor self-published her thesis as a book titled Why Women are Blamed for Everything. Based on three years of doctoral research and 10 years of practice with women and girls, the book focuses on the reasons why society and individual psychology blames women for male violence committed against them.[13] It draws on the psychometric measure Taylor developed during her doctoral research–called the BOWSVA scale–which measures the way the general public and professionals apportion blame to women and girls who have been subjected to sexual violence. The book also includes interviews with women who have been blamed for sexual assaults and professionals working in sexual violence services who are attempting to deconstruct victim blaming.[13]

Upon the book’s release, Taylor was the target of coordinated attacks and harassment by alt-right trolls on Facebook and Twitter, and her personal computer was hacked.[14][15][16] Why Women are Blamed for Everything sold 10,000 copies in its first two months before being bought by the publishing company Constable.[13][17]

In 2022, Taylor published her second book, Sexy But Psycho: Uncovering the Labelling of Women and Girls through Constable. She described it as ”mixture of academic research, history, psychology and real-life stories of women and girls who have been told that they are mentally ill, instead of being listened to”.[18] The book focuses on how mental illness has historically been used to discredit women, focusing especially on the 2000s and pop artist Britney Spears.[19]

During the Depp v. Heard case, Taylor said that borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder are "not proven medical conditions" but are instead "highly contested controversial psychiatric labels". On her website, she professed that the former is known in psychology and psychiatry as a "junk diagnosis", and the latter as a "debunked disorder".[20][21]

Publications

  • The Little Orange Book: Learning about abuse from the voice of the child (2018)[22]
  • Detoxing Taylor (2011, as Jessica Eaton)[23]
  • Why Women are Blamed for Everything: Exploring Victim Blaming of Women Subjected to Abuse and Trauma (2020)[24]
  • 'I thought it was just a part of life' Understanding the Scale of Violence Committed Against Women in the UK Since Birth (2021)[25]
  • Sexy But Psycho: Uncovering the Labelling of Women and Girls (2022)[18]

References

  1. ^ "BBC Two - Womanhood". BBC. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  2. ^ Graffius, Catriona; Sun, The (1 June 2021). "Millionaire kills lover over sex video". news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Championing a 'VictimFocus' World with Jessica Eaton". onestopsocial.co.uk. 16 January 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  4. ^ https://www.oups.org.uk/mindfulness-stress-management-review
  5. ^ "Jessica Eaton School of Psychology Doctoral Researcher". birmingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  6. ^ Taylor, Jessica (14 May 2020). "Why do we blame women for the actions of rapists, traffickers, and abusers?". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 1 June 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  7. ^ "2017 shortlist". myzen.co.uk. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  8. ^ "Jessica Eaton – Individual Award Nominee – 2018". emmahumphreys.org. 19 January 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  9. ^ Eaton, Jessica (12 December 2019). 'Logically, I know I'm not to blame but I still feel to blame': exploring and measuring victim blaming and self-blame of women who have been subjected to sexual violence. etheses.bham.ac.uk (d_ph). Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  10. ^ "PhD student announced as Chair of the Parliamentary Conference on Violence Against Women and Girls". birmingham.ac.uk. 5 September 017. Retrieved 11 July 2020. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ @DrJessicaTaylor (20 September 2019). "Well I guess today is my first day as a /Senior Lecturer in Criminal and Forensic Psychology then....Sorry to keep the news from you all. Turns out I have a grown-up job now along with victimfocus...From now on, I will be the epitome of mature and polite" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  12. ^ "Jessica Eaton Granted a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts". sateda.org. 26 April 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  13. ^ a b c "Constable claims self-publishing success Why Women Are Blamed for Everything | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  14. ^ Flood, Alison (24 April 2020). "Author of book about victim blaming bombarded with misogynist abuse". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  15. ^ "Author of victim-blaming book targeted by misogynist trolls". The Independent. 25 April 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2022.
  16. ^ Slisco, Aila (24 April 2020). "Author of Book Explaining Why Women Are Victim-Blamed Targeted by Online Hacking, Harassment". newsweek.com. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  17. ^ @DrJessTaylor (28 June 2020). "My self-published book sold 10,000 copies in 2 months, got picked up by an awesome publisher and will be going everywhere soon! I'm so excited! Can't believe how well the book has done. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported the book so far" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  18. ^ a b "Constable scoops Taylor's Sexy But Psycho | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  19. ^ Knox, Kirsty Blake (26 March 2022). "'Britney was called crazy but men have done much worse'". Irish Independent. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  20. ^ "'Debunked' psychological diagnoses of Amber Heard 'must be discounted'". The Independent. 28 April 2022.
  21. ^ "Predictably, Amber Heard Just Got Diagnosed With BPD and HPD". www.victimfocus.org.uk. 29 April 2022.
  22. ^ The Little Orange Book : learning about abuse from the voice of the child. OCLC 1054886898. Retrieved 11 July 2020. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  23. ^ Jessica Eaton. Detoxing Taylor. OCLC 941734695. Retrieved 26 August 2021. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  24. ^ Why women are blamed for everything: exploring victim blaming of women subjected to violence and trauma. OCLC 1159730638. Retrieved 11 July 2020. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  25. ^ Victim Focus (2021). 'I thought it was just a part of life' Understanding the Scale of Violence Committed Against Women in the UK Since Birth (PDF). Birmingham: Victim Focus.
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