I am beyond thrilled to announce that Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape, an anthology I co-edited with the Jaclyn Friedman, is out.
I'm incredibly proud of the book, which I think is really made by its amazing contributors: writers, bloggers and activists like Julia Serano, Latoya Peterson, Jill Filipovic, Tiloma Jayasinghe, Coco Fusco, Kate Harding, and Feministing's own Miriam Zoila Perez and Samhita Mukhopadhyay. (Among many awesome others.)
In addition to the great essays, I'm also really excited about the way we formatted the anthology. Because so many of the topics covered are related and intersect in various ways, we didn't want to group certain essays together in a traditional linear fashion. So we took a cue from blogging and tagging and gave each piece multiple themes.
So after reading Latoya Peterson's essay, "The Not-Rape Epidemic," if you want to read something else about youth sexuality, you'll be directed to essays from Heather Corrina ("An Immodest Proposal") and Hanne Blank ("The Process-Oriented Virgin"). But if you want to follow up on another theme Peterson writes about - the role of government in policing female sexuality, for example - you can skip to a different essay instead.
This way, the reader can create the narrative they want to - Jaclyn and I started calling it a "choose your own adventure" anthology! (Check out the preview on Google Books if you'd like to see what I mean.)
So please consider buying (or borrowing from the library or a friend!) Yes Means Yes - a book I hope will add to the discourse surrounding rape culture, a book I hope will spark positive action.
Related: If you want to follow some of our contributors and the ongoing conversation started in book, you can check out the Yes Means Yes blog, or come to one of the upcoming book events!
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Yes Means Yes: The anthology is here!.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/10983
I am curious, what do people mean when they say "rape culture"? I'm probably going to challenge responses because I've seen this term, but I can't tell what it is trying to actually talk about or what it is really supposed to mean in any specific way.
It's fascinating that you're willing to tip your hand that you're not going to accept any answers you get. You know what's awesome? Google. And Wikipedia. Which happen to answer your question.
Yeah well, if you'd seen some of the other comments by this same person...
Congratulations everyone! I can't wait to review this baby for Not Oprah's Book Club!
Wow, I just looked at the preview. This book looks amazing. I'm buying it as soon as I get the chance.
Congratulations to everyone who was involved in the making of this book. Good job!
Yes, I have read that and some other articles. I wouldn't come ask here without doing at least cursory research.
Then I fail to see what you're asking. The definition provided is fairly specific and makes it very clear what people mean by "rape culture". The whole first paragraph of that page provides a definition and even a few examples of things that typify a rape culture.
I'm very excited about this book. The articles I've read have been very powerful, thought provoking, and well written. I've had to put it down several times because some of the pieces tell such moving personal tales.
Excellent work.
Interesting preview. I was really disappointed when it ended. I definitely need this book!
I ran right out and grabbed it as soon as it hit the shelves. Until I got the book, the only essay in it I had seen was my own, but I was so excited by the list of contributors that I really wanted to see what they said. Having finished the book (in a four-day gulp), I have to say I am really impressed.
I can't pick a favorite; there are too many really good pieces. And some were well-crafted and will probably mean different things to other folks than they did to me. But I was impressed with many of the essays for very different reasons. I met Samhita recently, and I told her that I thought hers was very brave for taking on the history of rape-apology narratives about women of color in the particular way she did, taking head-on the stories that so often get used as examples by the rape apologists. Jill Filipovic's was had a scope that worked to pull together much of the book. Hanne Blank's made me think. Latoya Peterson's nearly made me cry. And Jaclyn's, which wraps it up, made me throw my head back and laugh. And Miriam's, and Julia Serano's, and the intro by Margaret Cho, and Jessica's, and ... that ain't the half of it.
Obviously I can't be objective, because my work is in the book and because so is that of several of my friends. But I'm so impressed that I've asked every contributor I've seen to sign my copy. I think this is a fantastic read, and also something that is going to contribute to folks' thinking for a long time to come.
Congratulations everyone!games