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A review by sam_rockbrune
Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture--And What We Can Do about It by Kate Harding
5.0
I love this book. It’s intense and serious and funny and sarcastic and heartbreaking at points and everything I wanted for a book about sexual assault in western society. It was a hard read. I won’t lie. But so so necessary. I really enjoyed the final two chapters, which focused on online harassment, mras and pick up artists and freedom of speech. That chapter I found could stand alone, and not be required to be associated with rape in the same sense as all the other chapters. I liked how this book ended on a somewhat positive note pointing out all the good that has been happening. I’m going to buy this book to reread because I found a lot of the information to be useful for theorizing about rape culture. Overall I suggest everyone read this but be prepared for the intense overwhelming feelings that it incites.
While reading this I found it was almost too much at times and while I did manage to read it within a two week or so span I found it necessary to take more breaks than usual because it became so much. Originally I was also going to read Missoula, a book about campus rape right after, but because my fall project was also about sexual assault it all became a little too much. Asking for it is a difficult read because of how depressing the information is. Very very little of this was new or shocking for. I’ve spent the past four years immersed in it. Harding talks a lot about recent high profile cases (excluding the extremely recent such as Ghomeshi or Mandi Gray or Stanford rapist) and I found that important. These are all cases that have shaped my understanding of society and it was interesting (and nice in a way) to see them be discussed. Harding was able to articulate all of the feelings and thoughts I have about rape culture in a understandable and eloquent manner. Overall if you want to read about rape culture whether you are new to the term or want something that will reaffirm what you know check this book out.
While reading this I found it was almost too much at times and while I did manage to read it within a two week or so span I found it necessary to take more breaks than usual because it became so much. Originally I was also going to read Missoula, a book about campus rape right after, but because my fall project was also about sexual assault it all became a little too much. Asking for it is a difficult read because of how depressing the information is. Very very little of this was new or shocking for. I’ve spent the past four years immersed in it. Harding talks a lot about recent high profile cases (excluding the extremely recent such as Ghomeshi or Mandi Gray or Stanford rapist) and I found that important. These are all cases that have shaped my understanding of society and it was interesting (and nice in a way) to see them be discussed. Harding was able to articulate all of the feelings and thoughts I have about rape culture in a understandable and eloquent manner. Overall if you want to read about rape culture whether you are new to the term or want something that will reaffirm what you know check this book out.