The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
kindledspiritsbooks's review
4.0
I like to think that fate brought this book found into my life, because I found it sitting forlornly, having been abandoned in the park near my house. I’m glad I found it, because it provides some really interesting analysis of the ‘grey areas’ of sex that legally wouldn’t be considered sexual assault but can still leave people feelings hurt, uncomfortable and even traumatised. She discusses the rise of non-consensual choking, spitting and slapping in casual sexual encounters and goes out of her way to highlight how the prevalence and specifics of this violence can intersect with existing societal problems such as racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and fatphobia. I appreciated that Thompson went out of her way to make this book sex-positive while still highlighting a growing but underdiscussed issue. Rough provides its readers with the vocabulary to have much needed discussions about the ways that this kind of behaviour impacts people and provides concrete solutions for how society can tackle it, including (gasp) treating the people you have sex with with kindness and humanity!
adep02's review against another edition
4.5
Really great book. Liked that the chapters each tackled something different to do with sexual violence, including things like racism and ableism. It was clearly written with a lot of love, but also a lot of fire in the belly. Would definitely recommend
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism and Racism
ezoots's review against another edition
5.0
This book is amazing for understanding sexual assault, trans issues, toxic masculinity. Amazing.
baileyx's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
a good whistle stop, entry level text on all the grey areas that the concept of sexual consent struggles to definitively encompass
the author was super ambitious and included lots of themes so unfortunately it felt the analysis was a little surface level at times, but overall a solid introduction for sure!
the author was super ambitious and included lots of themes so unfortunately it felt the analysis was a little surface level at times, but overall a solid introduction for sure!
frombethanysbookshelf's review
4.0
Genre: Non-Fiction
Release Date: Expected 26th August 2021
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK - Square Peg
"For every women, every femme, every non-binary person who's ever experienced something they didn't have the words to define. For those who've experienced something they'd rather forget. Who felt that what happened to them didn't match up to what they consented to. Who felt their experienced was just a 'gray area' or 'just bad sex' or 'not rape, but...'. Who were harmed, and didn't believe they had the right to feel that way."
Rough is a collection of the stories of fifty different women and non-binary people at their experience with sexual violence. It read more like a collection of personal anectodes with some facts and statistics alongside, so was (writing-wise) very easy to read and absorb, despite the content being very hard to read in places. It had a very personal feel to it, as though the writer is talking directly to us through these stories and reaching a familiarly painful place in all of us.
"There is a very specific type of lonliness that comes with not being to speak about these things. I didn't know that the women in my life were silently dealing with the very same thing."
Dealing with a range of issues that we are taught not to talk about, from the use of language such as 'unconsensual sex' that waters down the violence and the violation that is rape, to more subtle acts of sexual violence such as 'stealthing', the way we excuse non-consentual kink if someone has previously engaged in BDSM or other kinks and how we often view forced sex in relationships as a totally normal thing. Also bringing an open conversation into the 'gray' areas of sex, like consentual sex that is not wanted or desired but done regardless - this book may not have told me many things I didn't already know, but gave me a further insight into people from different backgrounds who've lived through similar experiences. This book is a conversation starter.
This book is kink-positive, sex-positive and consent-postive - looking into the other issues that tie in with sexual violence like racism, ableism,transphobia, fatphobia and other driving forces, blatant and microaggressive behind violence that the world is now starting to pay attention to.
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thank you to Rachel Thompson, Random House UK and Netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.
mouseyness's review
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
can only hope that from now on sex education explores areas of consent and sexual violence in a way that is as inclusive and intersectional as this. I can't describe the positive impact this would have had on my early relationships if I'd had this information as a teenager.