Rape in Chicago

Rape in Chicago
Author: Dawn Rae Flood
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2012-05-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0252036891

Spanning a period of four tumultuous decades from the mid-1930s through the mid-1970s, this study reassesses the ways in which Chicagoans negotiated the extraordinary challenges of rape, as either victims or accused perpetrators. Drawing on extensive trial testimony, government reports, and media coverage, Dawn Rae Flood examines how individual men and women, particularly African Americans, understood and challenged rape myths and claimed their right to be protected as American citizens--protected by the State against violence, and protected from the State's prejudicial investigations and interrogations. Flood shows how defense strategies, evolving in concert with changes in the broader cultural and legal environment, challenged assumptions about black criminality while continuing to deploy racist and sexist stereotypes against the victims. Thoughtfully combining legal studies, medical history, and personal accounts, Flood pays special attention to how medical evidence was considered in rape cases and how victim-patients were treated by hospital personnel. She also analyzes medical testimony in modern rape trials, tracing the evolution of contemporary "rape kit" procedures as shaped by legal requirements, trial strategies, feminist reform efforts, and women's experiences.

Asking for It

Asking for It
Author: Kate Harding
Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2015-08-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0738217034

In the era of #metoo, a clear-eyed, sharp look at rape culture, sexual assault, harassment and violence against women--and what we can do about it. "A timely and brilliant book." (Jessica Valenti) Every seven minutes, someone in America commits a rape. And whether that's a football star, beloved celebrity, elected official, member of the clergy, or just an average Joe (or Joanna), there's probably a community eager to make excuses for that person. In Asking for It, Kate Harding combines in-depth research with a frank, no-holds-barred voice to make the case that twenty-first-century America supports rapists more effectively than it supports victims. From institutional failures in higher education to real-world examples of rape culture, Harding offers ideas and suggestions for how we, as a society, can take sexual violence much more seriously without compromising the rights of the accused.

The Rape of Mesopotamia

The Rape of Mesopotamia
Author: Lawrence Rothfield
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2009-08-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0226729435

On April 10, 2003, as the world watched a statue of Saddam Hussein come crashing down in the heart of Baghdad, a mob of looters attacked the Iraq National Museum. Despite the presence of an American tank unit, the pillaging went unchecked, and more than 15,000 artifacts—some of the oldest evidence of human culture—disappeared into the shadowy worldwide market in illicit antiquities. In the five years since that day, the losses have only mounted, with gangs digging up roughly half a million artifacts that had previously been unexcavated; the loss to our shared human heritage is incalculable. With The Rape of Mesopotamia, Lawrence Rothfield answers the complicated question of how this wholesale thievery was allowed to occur. Drawing on extensive interviews with soldiers, bureaucrats, war planners, archaeologists, and collectors, Rothfield reconstructs the planning failures—originating at the highest levels of the U.S. government—that led to the invading forces’ utter indifference to the protection of Iraq’s cultural heritage from looters. Widespread incompetence and miscommunication on the part of the Pentagon, unchecked by the disappointingly weak advocacy efforts of worldwide preservation advocates, enabled a tragedy that continues even today, despite widespread public outrage. Bringing his story up to the present, Rothfield argues forcefully that the international community has yet to learn the lessons of Iraq—and that what happened there is liable to be repeated in future conflicts. A powerful, infuriating chronicle of the disastrous conjunction of military adventure and cultural destruction, The Rape of Mesopotamia is essential reading for all concerned with the future of our past.

Rape is Rape

Rape is Rape
Author: Jody Raphael
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2013
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 161374479X

Through emotionally charged interviews, a thorough analysis of current rape research, government statistics, and medical and judicial records; and examination of a number of recent cases, Raphael reveals how widespread victim blaming and distortion of the facts are being used to further political agendas.

Redefining Rape

Redefining Rape
Author: Estelle B. Freedman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2013-09-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674728505

Rape has never had a universally accepted definition, and the uproar over "legitimate rape" during the 2012 U.S. elections confirms that it remains a word in flux. Redefining Rape tells the story of the forces that have shaped the meaning of sexual violence in the United States, through the experiences of accusers, assailants, and advocates for change. In this ambitious new history, Estelle Freedman demonstrates that our definition of rape has depended heavily on dynamics of political power and social privilege. The long-dominant view of rape in America envisioned a brutal attack on a chaste white woman by a male stranger, usually an African American. From the early nineteenth century, advocates for women's rights and racial justice challenged this narrow definition and the sexual and political power of white men that it sustained. Between the 1870s and the 1930s, at the height of racial segregation and lynching, and amid the campaign for woman suffrage, women's rights supporters and African American activists tried to expand understandings of rape in order to gain legal protection from coercive sexual relations, assaults by white men on black women, street harassment, and the sexual abuse of children. By redefining rape, they sought to redraw the very boundaries of citizenship. Freedman narrates the victories, defeats, and limitations of these and other reform efforts. The modern civil rights and feminist movements, she points out, continue to grapple with both the insights and the dilemmas of these first campaigns to redefine rape in American law and culture.

Lacuna

Lacuna
Author: Fiona Snyckers
Publisher: Europa Editions
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2022-01-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1609457269

The traumatized central character of J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace is provocatively reimagined in this “surprising, subtle, and deeply challenging” novel (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Two years ago, Lucy Lurie was the victim of an act of sexual violence that devastated her life. Afterwards, she becomes obsessed with the author John Coetzee, whose acclaimed novel turned her brutal assault into a literary metaphor. Withdrawn and fearful of crowds, Lucy nonetheless makes occasional forays into the world of men in her search for Coetzee himself. She means to confront him. The Lucy in his novel, Disgrace, is passive and almost entirely lacking agency. Lucy means to right the record, for she is the lacuna that Coetzee left in his novel—the missing piece of the puzzle. Lucy plans to put herself back in the story, to assert her agency and identity. For Lucy Lurie will be no man’s lacuna. Lacuna is both a powerful feminist reply to the book considered to be Coetzee’s masterwork, and the moving story of one woman’s attempt to reclaim her identity after trauma. Winner of the Sala Novel Award Winner of the Humanities and Social Sciences Award for the Novel

The Victim of Rape

The Victim of Rape
Author: Lynda Lytle Holmstrom
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 523
Release: 2017-09-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 135130190X

This unprecedented in-depth account of how our major institutions respond to the crime of rape is the first empirical study of rape victims in the United States as they come into contact with those who staff our police stations, hospitals, and courthouses. As this engrossing study makes clear, rape does not end with the assailant's departure; the profound suffering of the victim can be diminished or heightened by the response of these institutions. The authors provide direct, on-the-scene reports of how rape victims confront and endure the often devastating effects of institutional processing. Their work is based on first-hand observations, personal interviews, and case histories that document the rape victim's plight, and includes tables that present all research findings in easy-to-grasp numerical terms. The authors note changes now taking place, and argue that further institutional changes must be made to delegitimize rape in our society. The new introductory essay locates The Victim of Rape within the context of four lines of research: studies looking at the criminal justice system processing of such cases, the connection of rape to everyday life, social-structural and ideological support for rape, and strategies for prevention.

Confronting Rape and Sexual Assault

Confronting Rape and Sexual Assault
Author: Mary E. Odem
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 316
Release: 1998
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780842025997

Examines the issue of sexual violence from various perspectives, including sociology, criminology, anthropology, public health, and women's studies. This collection analyzes social and institutional factors that contribute to their occurrence and provides strategies for prevention and change.

Sexual Correctness

Sexual Correctness
Author: Wendy McElroy
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2001-06-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780786411443

As feminist and women-positive ideas and ideals exploded in the 1960s and 1970s, a sexual revolution was forged, allowing women a variety of lifestyle choices. Many current feminists, called "gender feminists" by some, too often are fighting to limit the sexual options of women. They view women as victims of patriarchy whom must be protected from making incorrect sexual choices, such as choosing to work in pornography or prostitution. As a movement, author McElroy believes, feminism is in danger of drifting from sexual liberation to sexual correctness. This work gives a critical overview of the ideological shift among many feminists. The issues of sexual correctness are examined in detail, showing how the changing ideology is destroying the principle of "a woman's body, a woman's right" and endangering women's right to choose. On each issue, this work presents alternatives in the individualist traditions that defined the feminism movement for many years.

Sidelined

Sidelined
Author: Julie DiCaro
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2022-03-15
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1524746126

“Sidelined is the feminist sports book we've all been waiting for.” —Jessica Valenti Shrill meets Brotopia in this personal and researched look at women's rights and issues through the lens of sports, from an award-winning sports journalist and women's advocate In a society that is digging deep into the misogyny underlying our traditions and media, the world of sports is especially fertile ground. From casual sexism, like condescending coverage of women’s pro sports, to more serious issues, like athletes who abuse their partners and face only minimal consequences, this area of our culture is home to a vast swath of gender issues that apply to all of us—whether or not our work and leisure time revolve around what happens on the field. No one is better equipped to examine sports through this feminist lens than sports journalist Julie DiCaro. Throughout her experiences covering professional sports for more than a decade, DiCaro has been outspoken about the exploitation of the female body, the covert and overt sexism women face in the workplace, and the male-driven toxicity in sports fandom. Now, through candid interviews, personal anecdotes, and deep research, she's tackling these thorny issues and exploring what America can do to give women a fair and competitive playing field in sports and beyond. Covering everything from the abusive online environment at Barstool Sports to the sexist treatment of Serena Williams and professional women's teams fighting for equal pay and treatment, and looking back at pioneering women who first took on the patriarchy in sports media, Sidelined will illuminate the ways sports present a microcosm of life as a woman in America—and the power in fighting back.