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funzbunz4567's review against another edition
4.0
Great read if you’re interested in intersectional feminism and sexuality. Touches on how race, gender, ableism, media, and culture affects what happens in the bedroom. Made me reflect on my own experiences and I felt validation. I felt it was lacking on the historical context, especially the titular question on how violence came into the bedroom. I was unclear on how this shift started.
jofourel's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
simoneclare's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
steelcranberrybatman's review against another edition
2.0
Rough started out strong but unfortunately fell short in a lot of areas and was largely disappointing.
Despite the book claiming to have an intersectional analysis of sexual violence, unfortunately the author gives no more than a sentence or two on the fact that all people of all genders can be perpetrators and victims of sexual violence. The books main message is “men do sexual violence to women”, and while yes - sexual violence often has a highly gendered component, sexual violence is NOT an exclusively “men abusing women” situation. This is a book that was written for cis white women who are starting to dip their toes into feminist literature.
This book fails to clearly define harm and it seems to believe that men are more empowered and privileged than women in all of their sexual interactions. For a book hoping to be intersectional, you just cannot flatten privilege and oppression into a question of gender alone. I was glad that they examined ways in which other experiences of marginalisation can impact a persons sexual experiences in the world, but unfortunately this was frustratingly surface level.
The book repeatedly speaks of the “growing problem of sexual violence” without ever providing evidence that confirms there is in fact a growing problem - which is a pretty substantial thing to say. When studies are used they’re typically used to describe how widespread an issue is, not ever to compare how sexual violence has changed over time. It was frustrating that for such an important claim we weren’t given any supporting evidence (particularly when the cover acts as though we will be told of the origins of sexual violence).
Overall, Rough isn’t what it could have been. It would work fine as an introduction into gendered sexual violence towards women in the west. I am sure there are many women who will find this work incredibly helpful and influential, they will see themselves reflected in it and I am glad for that.
Despite the book claiming to have an intersectional analysis of sexual violence, unfortunately the author gives no more than a sentence or two on the fact that all people of all genders can be perpetrators and victims of sexual violence. The books main message is “men do sexual violence to women”, and while yes - sexual violence often has a highly gendered component, sexual violence is NOT an exclusively “men abusing women” situation. This is a book that was written for cis white women who are starting to dip their toes into feminist literature.
This book fails to clearly define harm and it seems to believe that men are more empowered and privileged than women in all of their sexual interactions. For a book hoping to be intersectional, you just cannot flatten privilege and oppression into a question of gender alone. I was glad that they examined ways in which other experiences of marginalisation can impact a persons sexual experiences in the world, but unfortunately this was frustratingly surface level.
The book repeatedly speaks of the “growing problem of sexual violence” without ever providing evidence that confirms there is in fact a growing problem - which is a pretty substantial thing to say. When studies are used they’re typically used to describe how widespread an issue is, not ever to compare how sexual violence has changed over time. It was frustrating that for such an important claim we weren’t given any supporting evidence (particularly when the cover acts as though we will be told of the origins of sexual violence).
Overall, Rough isn’t what it could have been. It would work fine as an introduction into gendered sexual violence towards women in the west. I am sure there are many women who will find this work incredibly helpful and influential, they will see themselves reflected in it and I am glad for that.