Review of 'Unspeakable Things: Sex Lies and Revolution' on 'Goodreads'
I found this book captivating but also disappointing. I don't know how to rate it, so I won't.
Laurie Penny admits upfront that her book is a polemic, and it's an accurate description: this book is angry shouting. It's angry shouting about important topics, and I often (though not always) agree with her; sometimes I felt like she had taken some of my own thoughts and was angrily shouting them on my behalf.
Angry shouting has value. In a world of negative and oppressive cultural messages, hearing other people like you shouting angrily can help the countless dissatisfied, restless people identify the source of their discontent, start to love themselves, and focus their rage on the systems that oppress them.
But angry shouting isn't informative. It isn't an argument. My preference in nonfiction is for an actual argument, for an "information dump": I want studies, statistics, and historical documents (which, …
I found this book captivating but also disappointing. I don't know how to rate it, so I won't.
Laurie Penny admits upfront that her book is a polemic, and it's an accurate description: this book is angry shouting. It's angry shouting about important topics, and I often (though not always) agree with her; sometimes I felt like she had taken some of my own thoughts and was angrily shouting them on my behalf.
Angry shouting has value. In a world of negative and oppressive cultural messages, hearing other people like you shouting angrily can help the countless dissatisfied, restless people identify the source of their discontent, start to love themselves, and focus their rage on the systems that oppress them.
But angry shouting isn't informative. It isn't an argument. My preference in nonfiction is for an actual argument, for an "information dump": I want studies, statistics, and historical documents (which, strangely, Penny mentions but does not actually include). I want to feel like I'm learning something, that I have new information that I could use to argue my position and convince an opponent. That's not this book. It comes as no surprise that the passages I found most satisfying were the (rare) passages that included actual facts. Even when the facts were "merely" recountings of Penny's own experiences -- anecdata to be sure, but at least something to support the angry shouting.
I do disagree with the way Penny talks about rape and rape culture. There are things I do agree with (the important things): the victim of sexual assault or rape is never at fault. The perpetrator is 100% at fault. I resent victim-blaming. (Interestingly, studies show (y'know, actual studies, with data, that Penny consistently omits) that there is little-to-no correlation between the traits/behaviors we commonly think of as "inviting rape" and actual acts of sexual assault or rape. Not that this matters: even if someone is standing on a street corner shouting "RAPE ME NOW!!!", nobody should actually do that. Because we have responsibilities as as citizens to obey laws, and responsibilities as human beings not to harm each other.) Penny wants all rape/sexual assault prevention to focus on educating the potential perpetrators. Potential victims should be free to do whatever they want, whenever they want (as long as they're not hurting anyone else). The only relevant message, for Penny, is "DON'T RAPE." But this is a fantasy and it's dangerous.
We don't live in a perfect world. There are bad people, and mostly good people who do bad things sometimes. And sometimes you have the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and one of those bad things is done to you -- not because you asked for it, but because that's just how the world works. Yes, it sucks. But it's the truth. So I don't think it's wrong to educate potential victims on steps they can take to actually protect themselves, as long as it's within a context that places blame squarely on the shoulders of the assailant and the focus of education is to teach potential rapists not to rape.
