Resisting Rape Culture through Pop Culture

Resisting Rape Culture through Pop Culture
Author: Kelly Wilz
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2019-12-09
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1498588697

Resisting Rape Culture through Pop Culture: Sex After #MeToo provides audiences with constructive models of affirmative consent, tender masculinity, and pleasure in popular culture that work to challenge toxic dominant and hegemonic constructions. While numerous scholars have illustrated the many ways mediated culture shape social understandings of sexual violence, this book analyzes texts that might serve to resist rape culture. This project locates how these texts manufacture cinematic or televisual narratives and in turn work to create new realities that encourage cultural and social change. Kelly Wilz analyzes the ways in which we, as a culture, tend to understand sex through visual media and dominant cultural myths, while highlighting productive texts which might serve as a possible corrective to the ways in which sex is ritualized by rules that legitimize violence. Through the lens of productive criticism, Wilz examines how language and dominant ideologies around rape culture and rape myths reinforce systemic violence, and how visual texts might work to reimagine how we might disrupt those ideologies and create new ways to engage in conversations around intimacy and violence. By centering the voices within the #MeToo movement, who actively work to de-normalize sexual assault and abuse, these models provide a useful counter to the deluge of dehumanizing narratives about survivors and sexualized violence. Scholars of pop culture, women’s studies, media studies, and social justice will find this book particularly useful.

Guilt by Accusation

Guilt by Accusation
Author: Alan Dershowitz
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2019-11-19
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1510757562

A Wall Street Journal bestseller! Alan Dershowitz, one of America’s most respected legal scholars and a New York Times bestselling author proves—with incontrovertible evidence—that he is entirely innocent of the sexual misconduct accusations against him, while suggesting a roadmap for how such allegations should be handled in a just society. “Maybe the question isn’t what happened to Alan Dershowitz. Maybe it’s what happened to everyone else.”—Politico Alan Dershowitz has been called “one of the most prominent and consistent defenders of civil liberties in America” by Politico and “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights” by Newsweek. Yet he has come under intense criticism for applying those same principles, and his famed “shoe‑on‑the‑other‑foot test,” to those accused of sexual misconduct. In Guilt by Accusation, Dershowitz provides an in‑depth analysis of the false accusations against him, alongside a full presentation of the exculpatory evidence that proves his account, including emails from his accuser and an admission of his innocence from her lawyer, David Boies. Additionally, he examines current attitudes toward accusations of sexual misconduct, which are today, in the age of #MeToo, accepted as implicit truth without giving the accused a fair chance to defend themselves and their innocence, and suggests possible pathways back to a society and legal system in which due process is respected above public opinion and the whims of social media mobs. This book is Alan Dershowitz’s plea for fairness for both accuser and accused, his principled stand for due process no matter the allegation, and his compelling assertion of his own innocence. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to know the inside story behind the accusations against him or who cares about the current societal debate over how we should handle accusations of sexual misconduct. The #MeToo movement has generally been a force for good, but as with many good movements, it is being exploited by some bad people for personal profit. Supporters of the #MeToo movement must not allow false accusers to hurt real victims by hiding behind its virtuous shield, turning it into an exploitive sword against innocent people.

After #MeToo

After #MeToo
Author: Gerard Casey
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2020-04-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1788360346

In After #MeToo, Gerard Casey provides a critical assessment of the #MeToo movement, situating it in the context of the radical feminism of which it is just the latest manifestation. Apart from its legitimating an indiscriminate attack on men and masculinity, Casey argues that the #MeToo movement has exposed a conceptual fault-line in radical feminist anthropology. Are women fully-developed moral agents, able to exercise moral choice and to take responsibility for what they do; or are women elements of a collective made up of the victims of sexual crimes, whose suffering is not just that of any one individual woman but of the group as a whole? Casey's analysis of the #MeToo movement is prefaced by a brief typology of forms of feminism and by an account of the supposedly universal oppression of women by a malign patriarchy. He argues that if there is such a thing as the patriarchy, it is singularly and spectacularly ineffectual in its operation inasmuch as women, on the whole, are not only not oppressed in comparison to men but are rather the beneficiaries of legal and social privileges. After #MeToo concludes with a consideration of the changing legal definitions of rape. Once understood to be essentially a crime of violence, rape has now come to be regarded as a violation of personal autonomy. In common law systems, a certain conception of consent is now central to the definition of rape, a conception that, Casey argues, is unworkable, at once infantilising women and, at the same time, potentially criminalising every sexual encounter in which a man is involved.

Citadels of Pride: Sexual Abuse, Accountability, and Reconciliation

Citadels of Pride: Sexual Abuse, Accountability, and Reconciliation
Author: Martha C. Nussbaum
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2021-05-11
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1324004126

Finalist for the American Bar Association's 2022 Silver Gavel Award A groundbreaking exploration of sexual violence by one of our most celebrated experts in law and philosophy. In this essential philosophical and practical reckoning, Martha C. Nussbaum, renowned for her eloquence and clarity of moral vision, shows how sexual abuse and harassment derive from using people as things to one’s own benefit—like other forms of exploitation, they are rooted in the ugly emotion of pride. She exposes three “Citadels of Pride” and the men who hoard power at the apex of each. In the judiciary, the arts, and sports, Nussbaum analyzes how pride perpetuates systemic sexual abuse, narcissism, and toxic masculinity. The courage of many has brought about some reforms, but justice is still elusive—warped sometimes by money, power, or inertia; sometimes by a collective desire for revenge. By analyzing the effects of law and public policy on our ever-evolving definitions of sexual violence, Nussbaum clarifies how gaps in U.S. law allow this violence to proliferate; why criminal laws dealing with sexual assault and Title VII, the federal law that is the basis for sexual harassment doctrine, need to be complemented by an understanding of the distorted emotions that breed abuse; and why anger and vengeance rarely achieve lasting change. Citadels of Pride offers a damning indictment of the culture of male power that insulates high-profile abusers from accountability. Yet Nussbaum offers a hopeful way forward, envisioning a future in which, as survivors mobilize to tell their stories and institutions pursue fair and nuanced reform, we might fully recognize the equal dignity of all people.

Unbound

Unbound
Author: Tarana Burke
Publisher: Flatiron Books: An Oprah Book
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2021-09-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1250621755

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Searing. Powerful. Needed." —Oprah “Sometimes a single story can change the world. Unbound is one of those stories. Tarana’s words are a testimony to liberation and love.” —Brené Brown From the founder and activist behind one of the largest movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the "me too" movement, Tarana Burke debuts a powerful memoir about her own journey to saying those two simple yet infinitely powerful words—me too—and how she brought empathy back to an entire generation in one of the largest cultural events in American history. Tarana didn’t always have the courage to say "me too." As a child, she reeled from her sexual assault, believing she was responsible. Unable to confess what she thought of as her own sins for fear of shattering her family, her soul split in two. One side was the bright, intellectually curious third generation Bronxite steeped in Black literature and power, and the other was the bad, shame ridden girl who thought of herself as a vile rule breaker, not as a victim. She tucked one away, hidden behind a wall of pain and anger, which seemed to work...until it didn’t. Tarana fought to reunite her fractured self, through organizing, pursuing justice, and finding community. In her debut memoir she shares her extensive work supporting and empowering Black and brown girls, and the devastating realization that to truly help these girls she needed to help that scared, ashamed child still in her soul. She needed to stop running and confront what had happened to her, for Heaven and Diamond and the countless other young Black women for whom she cared. They gave her the courage to embrace her power. A power which in turn she shared with the entire world. Through these young Black and brown women, Tarana found that we can only offer empathy to others if we first offer it to ourselves. Unbound is the story of an inimitable woman’s inner strength and perseverance, all in pursuit of bringing healing to her community and the world around her, but it is also a story of possibility, of empathy, of power, and of the leader we all have inside ourselves. In sharing her path toward healing and saying "me too," Tarana reaches out a hand to help us all on our own journeys.

Social Q's

Social Q's
Author: Philip Galanes
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2012-11-27
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 145160579X

A series of whimsical essays by the New York Times "Social Q's" columnist provides modern advice on navigating today's murky moral waters, sharing recommendations for such everyday situations as texting on the bus to splitting a dinner check.

Asymmetry

Asymmetry
Author: Lisa Halliday
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2018-02-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1501166778

A TIME and NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOK of the YEAR * New York Times Notable Book and Times Critic’s Top Book of 2018 NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2018 BY * Elle * Bustle * Kirkus Reviews * Lit Hub* NPR * O, The Oprah Magazine * Shelf Awareness The bestselling and critically acclaimed debut novel by Lisa Halliday, hailed as “extraordinary” by The New York Times, “a brilliant and complex examination of power dynamics in love and war” by The Wall Street Journal, and “a literary phenomenon” by The New Yorker. Told in three distinct and uniquely compelling sections, Asymmetry explores the imbalances that spark and sustain many of our most dramatic human relations: inequities in age, power, talent, wealth, fame, geography, and justice. The first section, “Folly,” tells the story of Alice, a young American editor, and her relationship with the famous and much older writer Ezra Blazer. A tender and exquisite account of an unexpected romance that takes place in New York during the early years of the Iraq War, “Folly” also suggests an aspiring novelist’s coming-of-age. By contrast, “Madness” is narrated by Amar, an Iraqi-American man who, on his way to visit his brother in Kurdistan, is detained by immigration officers and spends the last weekend of 2008 in a holding room in Heathrow. These two seemingly disparate stories gain resonance as their perspectives interact and overlap, with yet new implications for their relationship revealed in an unexpected coda. A stunning debut from a rising literary star, Asymmetry is “a transgressive roman a clef, a novel of ideas, and a politically engaged work of metafiction” (The New York Times Book Review), and a “masterpiece” in the original sense of the word” (The Atlantic). Lisa Halliday’s novel will captivate any reader with while also posing arresting questions about the very nature of fiction itself.

The Routledge Handbook of the Politics of the #MeToo Movement

The Routledge Handbook of the Politics of the #MeToo Movement
Author: Giti Chandra
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 559
Release: 2020-11-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000245551

Since the MeToo hashtag went viral in 2017, the movement has burgeoned across social media, moving beyond Twitter and into living rooms and courtrooms. It has spread unevenly across the globe, with some countries and societies more impacted than others, and interacted with existing feminist movements, struggles, and resistances. This interdisciplinary handbook identifies thematic and theoretical areas that require attention and interrogation, inviting the reader to make connections between the ways in which the #MeToo movement has panned out in different parts of the world, seeing it in the context of the many feminist and gendered struggles already in place, as well as the solidarities with similar movements across countries and cultures. With contributions from gender experts spanning a wide range of disciplines including political science, history, sociology, law, literature, and philosophy, this groundbreaking book will have contemporary relevance for scholars, feminists, gender researchers, and policy-makers across the globe.

#MeToo, Weinstein and Feminism

#MeToo, Weinstein and Feminism
Author: Karen Boyle
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2019-11-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030282430

This book provides a feminist analysis of #MeToo and the sexual assault allegations against celebrity perpetrators which have emerged since the Weinstein story of October 2017. It argues for the importance of understanding #MeToo in relation to an on-going history of Anglo-American feminist activism, theory and interdisciplinary research. Boyle investigates how speaking out about rape, sexual assault and harassment on social media can be understood in relation to second-wave feminist traditions of consciousness-raising. Her argument explores the media depiction of feminism – and feminists - in the wake of Weinstein and the cultural values associated with men’s abuse, particularly within the film and television industries. The book concludes with an exploration of what the #MeToo era has meant for men as victims/survivors and as alleged perpetrators, in relation to narratives of victimisation and of monstrosity.

Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl: A Memoir

Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl: A Memoir
Author: Jeannie Vanasco
Publisher: Tin House Books
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2019-10-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1947793543

A New York Times Editors’ Choice and Best Book of the Year at TIME, Esquire, Amazon, Kirkus, and Electric Literature Jeannie Vanasco has had the same nightmare since she was a teenager. It is always about him: one of her closest high school friends, a boy named Mark. A boy who raped her. When her nightmares worsen, Jeannie decides—after fourteen years of silence—to reach out to Mark. He agrees to talk on the record and meet in person. Jeannie details her friendship with Mark before and after the assault, asking the brave and urgent question: Is it possible for a good person to commit a terrible act? Jeannie interviews Mark, exploring how rape has impacted his life as well as her own. Unflinching and courageous, Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl is part memoir, part true crime record, and part testament to the strength of female friendships—a recounting and reckoning that will inspire us to ask harder questions, push towards deeper understanding, and continue a necessary and long overdue conversation.