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A review by andibutts
Learning Good Consent: On Healthy Relationships and Survivor Support by
3.0
CW // Rape apologism, sexual violence.
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I was excited to read this book as soon as I read the foreword, which discussed the necessity of placing consent "within a framework of structural inequality and oppression," as "structural inequities generate violence, complicate our abilities to consent, and stand in the way of our healing" (Fujikawa and Peters-Golden 6-7). (Consent is a social justice issue, y'all! We cannot stop sexual violence and create a consent culture with individualized solutions.) For the most part, this book lived up to my expectations. It was gender- and LGBTQ+-inclusive, community- and liberation-focused, and survivor-centered. It validated my experiences as a survivor, and its personal tone helped me engage fully with the material at hand.
With that said, a smaller (but significant) portion of this book seemed to me to be rape apologism disguised as transformative justice. People who have abused others don't need to be coddled any more than they already are, and any version of "transformative justice" that does this has, in my opinion, been co-opted. I say this as someone who believes that people *can* change and grow, that the survivor-abuser dichotomy is simplistic and inaccurate, and that shame and punishment are ineffective motivators for change.
And still, there are enough survivors who have *not* been abusive (
—
I was excited to read this book as soon as I read the foreword, which discussed the necessity of placing consent "within a framework of structural inequality and oppression," as "structural inequities generate violence, complicate our abilities to consent, and stand in the way of our healing" (Fujikawa and Peters-Golden 6-7). (Consent is a social justice issue, y'all! We cannot stop sexual violence and create a consent culture with individualized solutions.) For the most part, this book lived up to my expectations. It was gender- and LGBTQ+-inclusive, community- and liberation-focused, and survivor-centered. It validated my experiences as a survivor, and its personal tone helped me engage fully with the material at hand.
With that said, a smaller (but significant) portion of this book seemed to me to be rape apologism disguised as transformative justice. People who have abused others don't need to be coddled any more than they already are, and any version of "transformative justice" that does this has, in my opinion, been co-opted. I say this as someone who believes that people *can* change and grow, that the survivor-abuser dichotomy is simplistic and inaccurate, and that shame and punishment are ineffective motivators for change.
And still, there are enough survivors who have *not* been abusive (