Jaclyn Friedman

My biggest problem with this book is that a lot of the essays don't really push into the visions promised by the title - they're to a large extent descriptions of what the authors have experienced. This is obviously valuable, but I guess I expected a bit more given the title and the wide availability of many different people's experiences on the internet that this to a certain extent replicates. Also, only a few essays linked the problems described to causes past a nebulous "culture" and to things like capitalism. This isn't to say the book is bad. The vast majority of essays are good and a couple are great. I think this would be an excellent introduction to the topic and I do think it's worth a read - some of the stuff here made me think more even though I've been engaging with these ideas for a while.

I'll mention one of the early essays though that stood out as particularly bad. It talks about women in jobs where they're treated pretty much as sexual objects. Yet it didn't mention the economic conditions that force them there and even though it quoted a model who talked about the ways in which her job was "empowering" - or at least less degrading than assumed - it didn't engage at all. Her final conclusion, as a self described "young professional in New York", was that all these people should quit their jobs. Incredible.

The stand out essay of the collection is "The Not Rape Epidemic" by Latoya Peterson. I read it on the internet before I found the book and it's an absolutely harrowing, deeply affecting essay that actually made me sit up and take note of how incredibly fucked up our rape culture is. I was numb for several hours. I recommend reading it if you can deal with it. It's incredible.

http://www.racialicious.com/2008/12/21/original-essay-the-not-rape-epidemic/… (més)