Lots of interesting disruption to the popular discourse around rape. ( )

For a such a little book it has created quite a furore: it’s only 92 pages, of which four are endnotes. Greer has been vilified and mocked for it, which she must have known was going to happen, but she has always been courageous. She has been quoted as saying things which in the book are quotations from someone with whom she disagrees. She is condemned for writing words and having opinions and making statements that are nowhere to be found in the book. Greer seems to have a thick skin, but I wonder if she ever gets tired of the way her efforts to raise serious issues are treated in the media. And now she’s got social media to contend with as well.
FWIW Greer is not, in this book, suggesting solutions. She is raising issues for discussion because non-consensual sex, with or without violence, is a very serious problem.
Chapter one: ‘What is rape?’ shows that even defining what it is and what it isn’t, is contentious. Chapter two: ‘Creating confusion’ is an analysis of the ways in which sincere efforts at law reform since the 70s haven’t helped. Chapter three: ‘The conundrum of consent’ is a clear-eyed look at the intractable problem of proving lack of consent (he said/she said) in a court of law. Chapter four is called ‘Sex as a bloodsport’ and raises the problem of serial offenders in places like universities and how they get away with it.
Chapter five, ‘Victim or exhibit’ suggests that the legal system itself makes things more difficult, but solutions are not easy to come by since the accused —like any other person accused of a crime—has civil rights. A woman who accuses a man of rape is not a plaintiff, still less a prosecutor. She is evidence. An exhibit. The whole process is a long, drawn out and horrendous ordeal for the woman, and so far, attempts at reform haven’t helped.
The chapters ‘Joystick or weapon’ and ‘Healing the victim’ are the ones that have generated the most anger against Greer. I’ll just quote this bit:

As usual we are confronted by unanswerable questions. Most rape is not accompanied by physical injury or carried out by men unknown to the victim, nor is it followed by flashbacks or is it ever identified as a crime. In the case of a woman who chooses to report the event, we have no idea how much of her distress is caused by the work-up itself, by the compilation of the forensic evidence, by her having to tell her story over and over and in public and then to defend it both in the committal stage and later in the courtroom. The most catastrophic shock must surely come when, as far too often happens, the jury does not convict. Nothing in the literature of PTSD after rape deals with these experiences. For all the intellectual effort and energy that has gone into getting the law of rape to make sense, conviction rates are falling. Meanwhile the true extent of non-consensual sex remains unimaginable. (p.62)

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/11/09/on-rape-by-germaine-greer-bookreview/ ( )