Against Our Will : Men, Women and Rape
Author:
Genres: Health, Fitness & Dieting, Nonfiction
Book Type: Paperback
Author:
Genres: Health, Fitness & Dieting, Nonfiction
Book Type: Paperback
MY NOTES:
There are some interesting and well worth reading passages in this book, but one should always consider the angle though which the book was written. Extreme feminism and "man hating" that basically makes every man look like a predator. Dont get me wrong she does make historical, religious and factual references that, though obvious, are often not acknowledged. Her book is worth reading. But with a critical eye and "feminist-propaganda-decoding" perpetually in the back of your mind. MEN ARE NOT THE PROBLEM. MASCULINITY IS NOT THE PROBLEM. Individuals are... Though it is baffling to me how someone who has no experience with violence, hates men so much as to make them ALL look worst than the devil him self.
************************************
Review:
Susan Brownmiller (born 1935) is an American feminist journalist, author, and activist; she co-founded the Women Against Pornography group in 1979. She has written other books, such as In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution , Femininity , Shirley Chisholm , Waverly Place (a novel), etc.
She ends the first chapter with the statement, From prehistoric times to the present, I believe, rape has played a critical function. It is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which ALL MEN keep ALL WOMEN in a state of fear. (Pg. 5)
She says, As the first permanent acquisition of man, his first piece of real property, woman was, in fact, the original building block, the cornerstone, of the house of the father. Rape entered the law through the back door, as it were, as a property crime of man against man. Woman, of course, was viewed as the property. (Pg. 8)
After discussing mob violence, she comments, it mattered little to the rapists acting under the cover of a mob whether or not their victims were attractive.' This, too, is significant, since it argues that sexual appeal, as we understand it, has little to do with the act of rape. A mob turns to rape as an expression of power and dominance. Women are used almost as inanimate objects, to prove a point among men. (Pg. 131-132)
Quoting the research by Menachem Amir, she observes,Far from being a spontaneous explosion by an individual with pent-up emotions and uncontrollable lusts, he discovered the act was usually planned in advance and elaborately arranged by a single rapist or a group of buddies. In some case the lone rapist or the gang had a particular victim in mind and coolly took the necessary steps to lure her into an advantageous position. In other cases the DECISION to rape was made in advance by a gang, a pair of cohorts or a lone-wolf rapist, but SELECTION of the female was left to chance (Pg. 199)
She states, A world without rapists would be a world in which women moved freely without fear of men. That SOME men rape provides a sufficient threat to keep all women in a constant state of intimidation, forever conscious of the knowledge that the biological tool must be held in awe for it may turn into a weapon with sudden swiftness borne of harmful intent. (Pg. 229) Later, she adds. Rape is to women as lynching was to blacks: the ultimate physical threat by which all men keep all women in a state of psychological intimidation. (Pg. 281)
She points out, All women want to be raped. No woman can be raped against her will, She was asking for it. If you're going to be raped, you might as well relax and enjoy it': These are the deadly male myths about rape, the distorted proverbs that govern female sexuality for they are the beliefs that most men hold, and the nature of male power is such that they have managed to convince many women. For to make a woman a willing participant in her own defeat is half the battle. (Pg. 346)
She acknowledges,;I have examined the Freudian theory of inherent female rape dreams to lay the groundwork for an exploration of the conscious female fantasy of rape, the opposite, but hardly equal, polarity of the male rape fantasy, its distorted mirror image. The rape fantasy exists in women as a man-made iceberg. It can be destroyed---by feminism. (Pg. 358-359)
She argues, There can be no equality' in porn, no female equivalent, no turning of the tables in the name of bawdy fun. Pornography, like rape, is a male invention, designed to dehumanize women, to reduce the female to an object of sexual access, not to free sensuality from moralistic or paternal inhibition her private parts the private property of man, while his are his rule by force over HER. (Pg. 443)
This book was one of the most powerful products of the Second Wave of feminism, and it has lost none of its power, in the intervening forty years since it was written. Its disquieting and troubling truths are something we all must face up to.
There are some interesting and well worth reading passages in this book, but one should always consider the angle though which the book was written. Extreme feminism and "man hating" that basically makes every man look like a predator. Dont get me wrong she does make historical, religious and factual references that, though obvious, are often not acknowledged. Her book is worth reading. But with a critical eye and "feminist-propaganda-decoding" perpetually in the back of your mind. MEN ARE NOT THE PROBLEM. MASCULINITY IS NOT THE PROBLEM. Individuals are... Though it is baffling to me how someone who has no experience with violence, hates men so much as to make them ALL look worst than the devil him self.
************************************
Review:
Susan Brownmiller (born 1935) is an American feminist journalist, author, and activist; she co-founded the Women Against Pornography group in 1979. She has written other books, such as In Our Time: Memoir of a Revolution , Femininity , Shirley Chisholm , Waverly Place (a novel), etc.
She ends the first chapter with the statement, From prehistoric times to the present, I believe, rape has played a critical function. It is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which ALL MEN keep ALL WOMEN in a state of fear. (Pg. 5)
She says, As the first permanent acquisition of man, his first piece of real property, woman was, in fact, the original building block, the cornerstone, of the house of the father. Rape entered the law through the back door, as it were, as a property crime of man against man. Woman, of course, was viewed as the property. (Pg. 8)
After discussing mob violence, she comments, it mattered little to the rapists acting under the cover of a mob whether or not their victims were attractive.' This, too, is significant, since it argues that sexual appeal, as we understand it, has little to do with the act of rape. A mob turns to rape as an expression of power and dominance. Women are used almost as inanimate objects, to prove a point among men. (Pg. 131-132)
Quoting the research by Menachem Amir, she observes,Far from being a spontaneous explosion by an individual with pent-up emotions and uncontrollable lusts, he discovered the act was usually planned in advance and elaborately arranged by a single rapist or a group of buddies. In some case the lone rapist or the gang had a particular victim in mind and coolly took the necessary steps to lure her into an advantageous position. In other cases the DECISION to rape was made in advance by a gang, a pair of cohorts or a lone-wolf rapist, but SELECTION of the female was left to chance (Pg. 199)
She states, A world without rapists would be a world in which women moved freely without fear of men. That SOME men rape provides a sufficient threat to keep all women in a constant state of intimidation, forever conscious of the knowledge that the biological tool must be held in awe for it may turn into a weapon with sudden swiftness borne of harmful intent. (Pg. 229) Later, she adds. Rape is to women as lynching was to blacks: the ultimate physical threat by which all men keep all women in a state of psychological intimidation. (Pg. 281)
She points out, All women want to be raped. No woman can be raped against her will, She was asking for it. If you're going to be raped, you might as well relax and enjoy it': These are the deadly male myths about rape, the distorted proverbs that govern female sexuality for they are the beliefs that most men hold, and the nature of male power is such that they have managed to convince many women. For to make a woman a willing participant in her own defeat is half the battle. (Pg. 346)
She acknowledges,;I have examined the Freudian theory of inherent female rape dreams to lay the groundwork for an exploration of the conscious female fantasy of rape, the opposite, but hardly equal, polarity of the male rape fantasy, its distorted mirror image. The rape fantasy exists in women as a man-made iceberg. It can be destroyed---by feminism. (Pg. 358-359)
She argues, There can be no equality' in porn, no female equivalent, no turning of the tables in the name of bawdy fun. Pornography, like rape, is a male invention, designed to dehumanize women, to reduce the female to an object of sexual access, not to free sensuality from moralistic or paternal inhibition her private parts the private property of man, while his are his rule by force over HER. (Pg. 443)
This book was one of the most powerful products of the Second Wave of feminism, and it has lost none of its power, in the intervening forty years since it was written. Its disquieting and troubling truths are something we all must face up to.
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