November 17

Today in class we finished up the book review discussions and did the two minute TED talks. My book was Lucky by Alice Sebold, and a couple other people in the class also reviewed this book. The way I looked at my book was to break it down into a few main issues or themes that Sebold seemed to tackle most often. The three I thought were important were: Sebold's position as a rape victim (and therefore only a story to some people), the effect the rape had on the way she viewed her sexuality, and needing people to say the word "rape." The other two in class who looked at the same book chose different aspects of the case, especially looking at the relationship of the family, which was crucial in understanding the way Sebold thought about her rape.

As with my book, many of the books in the class related to the stranger rape that American culture tends to think is the most common form. I have wondered if this is due to the fact that the book may then be more "marketable." Marketable, in this sense, would then deal with the idea that it might be slightly easier to suggest a stranger rape than someone who you know.

There were also some contradictions with the firsthand accounts from the U.S. The only one that was out of the country was Jackson's case, which occurred in Paris. This one was interesting because the police response was completely different than the responses we have seen here. It seemed that the law enforcement over there were much readier to help the target and more willing to listen to her story. That was a bit refreshing in contrast to the diminishing actions of the law enforcement here.

Another case that was quite different from what the rest of the firsthand accounts was Jace's book about the woman who was targeted by her high school teacher, who began an abusive statutory rape "relationship" with her. In that book, the author described the process the abusers go through to make the targets more susceptible to their advances. She stated that many of the targets that are abused by these educators (or others who are in an authority positions) are people who feel ignored.

The other book that had a few different details was Lateah's book, which took a look at black women's stories of rape. This was different because most of the stories had targets who were white women. This book seemed to add much to the discussion of rape because it looked at the oversexualization of women of color. The book talked about the ideas surrounding the rapes of women of color, which were that she must have wanted it, or that she deserved it, or other horrible ideas. Moreover, she said the book discussed the accusation of betrayal that women of color had to face when they accused the black men who raped them. The accusation came with the idea that they would not want to "contribute" to the imprisonment of the black male population. The discussion of rape within the context of rape was really important.