A review by jjupille
Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus by Vanessa Grigoriadis

2.0

I can't quite put my finger on what left me dissatisfied with this, but I found it rather unfocused, lacking any kind of narrative thread. It was well reviewed and the topic is one I am close to and interested in. It contains lots of useful material, but for me it didn't bring it all together very successfully. I did get a sense of the range of issues, and I really strong agree with her support for positive consent -yes means yes, rather than no means no. I am not sure she adequately grappled with the "due process" and other kinds of issues facing the accused - the 1 in 1,000 who are accused have rights, too, and I don't think she dealt adequately with the challenges surrounding the investigation and adjudication of sexual misconduct claims of various kinds by university administrators. I guess I share her basic optimism that we are feeling our way toward some understanding, and the recommendations in the appendix seemed mostly unobjectionable to me.

Again, I was expecting more, but I am hard pressed to describe what that "more" would have looked like. I would recommend this as a pretty good descriptive overview of sex and sexual misconduct at American colleges and universities in the present period.