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From: ge@mcnc.org (George Entenman)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Book Review: Against Our Will
Message-ID: <7906@alvin.mcnc.org>
Date: 20 May 91 17:13:46 GMT
References: <1991May15.144955.22072@aero.org>
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Reply-To: ge@mcnc.org.UUCP (George Entenman)
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In article <1991May15.144955.22072@aero.org>  writes:

 > "Against Our Wills" is a highly touted book, and based on any objective
 > review, isn't worth the effort to read.  There are many better examples of
 > feminist literature where the author isn't attempting to further some
 > agenda that all men are evil.

It's been over 10 years since I read Susan Brownmiller's Against Our
Wills.  There may be newer books that are better, but I would like to
say why this book was worth reading at the time and what I learned from
it.

For me the book makes two very important points:

1.  Most contributers to this newsgroup seem to agree that rape
is a crime of violence, not sexuality.  I would submit that we
would not believe this if Brownmiller had not written that
long, horrible chapter about rape in the military and in
prison; about the rape of old women; etc.  If the book did no
more, it's historical value would be undisputed IMHO.

2.  Brownmiller establishes that the social function of rape is
to control women.  This point was most clearly made in the
chapter on popular fiction, where she analyzes pulp novels,
men's magazines, comic books, etc.  Rape is the punishment that
women "deserve" if they are not subservient to their husbands and
boyfriends.  This does not mean that the husbands or boyfriends
do the raping.  It is the rapists, the "shock troops" who do
that.

John Haugh also says that:

	>Brownmiller and others create this image
	>that all men are oppressors and all women are victims,
	>even in the face of evidence that men and women are
	>individuals falling somewheres on a continuum between
	>victim and oppressor....

I think that Brownmiller is perfectly aware of this continuum.
In my opinion, the point she is making is *not* that all men
are rapists, but that all men *benefit* from the actions of
rapists.

I'm sure that most of the men reading this newsgroup would
never rape a woman or force her to have sex in any way.  We're
nice guys.

But I submit that we all *benefit* from rape, whether we wish to
or not.  We have no more choice in the matter than those of us
who are white benefit from living in a racist world.

It's not hard to imagine how we "nice guys" benefit.  Women
need us to escort them at night or in dangerous areas.  We
fantasize about rescuing grateful women from a rapist (and here
I would ask the male readers of this newsgroup to look honestly
at themselves).  We get to post understanding articles to this
newsgroup and to feel accepted and needed by women.  And many
men benefit from having wives and girlfriends who are not free
to move about at night, for example.

In summary, Brownmiller's invaluable contribution was to show
that rape is violence and that violence is used to keep women
"in their place."  The criticisms that I have seen in this
newsgroup tend to focus on *individuals*, on how "we are not like
that", either not afraid (as women) or not rapists (as men).
But if we think of Brownmiller as someone who has helped us
understand the *social* function of rape, then I believe that we
will appreciate her contribution more and feel less threatened
as individuals by her book.

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