Seal Press is excited to share an amazing review from Publishers Weekly for Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape, edited by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti.
In addition to the starred review below check out the Yes Means Yes blog.
Congratulations to the editors, contributors, and all involved, for this review. It's so well deserved.
*Yes Means Yes! : Visions of Female Sexual Power & A World Without Rape
Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti. Seal, $15.95 (256p) ISBN 9781580052573
Activists and writers Friedman and Valenti (He's a Stud, She's a Slut) deliver an extraordinary essay compilation focusing on the struggle to stop rape in the U.S. and the importance of sexual identity and ownership. Early on, Thomas MacAulay Millar and Rachel Kramer Bussel explain how the “no means no” concept (sexual consent equals the absence of no) must be rejected in favor of a “yes means yes” mentality: the idea that consent means affirmative participation in the act itself, a broader definition that better protects women while encouraging power over—not fear of—personal sexual identity. Other topics include body image and self-esteem issues as well as incest, the dangers faced by female immigrants and the public perception of rape; in “Trial by Media,” Samhita Mukhopadhyay looks at the Duke Lacrosse rape case and finds the media acting in the tradition of slavery by commodifying the young, female African-American body. Though surprisingly entertaining throughout, with no shortage of wit or humor, unexpected topics (Friedman on enjoying sex, transsexual writer Julia Serano on the mixed cultural messages that lead “nice guys” to sexual aggression) keep the book dynamic. Sure to empower and inform, this is an important and inspiring read for assault survivors, educators, activists, experts and those on a path to self discovery. (Jan.)
2 comments:
I don't understand the use to the comment "He's a Stud, she's a Slut," in the above, but then I am hypersensitive to terms of derogation. The two don't equate. They say, he's -- well -- studly, while she (oh, ah ha ha, hee hee hee) sells sex for money, which doesn't strike me as particularly funny. And this comment was supposed to be funny, no? or light or something that just glancingly references gender? I think our society has a way-too-long history of inequality between the sexes to be able to laugh at this kind of thing just yet....
Hi Wayne's Mom. The reference above is for one of Jessica Valenti's previous books entitled: He's a Stud, She's a Slut and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know, where she offers solutions/ tools for women to fight back against the sexist stereotypes. Feel free to find out more about the book here:
http://www.sealpress.com/book.php?isbn=9781580052450\
~Seal Press
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