How a Book Changed the Way We Talk About Rape
In October of 1975, TIME named feminist journalist Susan Brownmiller "the first rape celebrity who is neither rapist nor rapee.", The very idea of a "rape celebrity" sounds shocking today, and it was at the time as well. Brownmiller's celebrity status was the result of her groundbreaking book Against Our Will Men, Women, and Rape, published precisely forty years ago. The bestseller was one of the first books to define rape as a political problem rather than an individual crime of passion. In addition to launching Brownmiller into the public eyeshe appeared as one of TIME's 12 "Women of the Year" two months laterAgainst Our Will brought the ideas of the feminist anti-rape movement into the mainstream. Decades later, her arguments are still relevant as politicians, college administrators and activists struggle to address the problem of sexual violence. Rape had been cloaked in stigma and silence for much of American history. Prior to the women's movement of the 1970s, it was understood to be a rare occurrence, as few survivors came forward. The reasons for this are now obvious In the 1960s and earlier, a rape victim seeking help would be met, instead, with blame and suspicion. Neither police departments nor hospitals had trained trauma counselors or procedures for collecting evidence or testing for disease. Filing criminal charges required "corroboration" of the assault from witnesses, and a woman's sexual past could be used by the defense to discredit her accusation. Brownmiller's book was part of a larger effort by feminists to change both laws and public attitudes, and to transform a culture that undervalued women's bodily autonomy. Against Our Will came out just as anti-rape activists began to create crisis centers, hotlines, self-defense classes and other forms of support for rape survivors. In her book, Brownmiller identified a number of deeply ingrained myths about rape that it is motivated by uncontrollable male lust rather than violence, that female sexuality is inherently masochistic and inviting of rape, and that women "cry rape with ease and glee." Against Our Will offered a coherent counter-discourse about rape, reframing it as an act of power, even mass terrorism, which had the consequence of controlling female behavior. In other words, Brownmiller argued, rape was fundamental to the patriarchal domination of women. TIME described this thesis as "startling," and called Against Our Will a "convincing and awesome portrait of men's cruelty to women." Indeed, Brownmiller's stated purpose in the book was to "give rape its history," and she details incidents of sexual violence dating back to the ancient Babylonians, as well as traditions of wartime rape in the modern era. Her emphasis on rape as a tactic in war and other forms of political conflict framed sexual violence as a collective social problem as well as a deliberate, calculated act meant to humiliate and degrade the victim. Part of what made Against Our Will so radical was its attention to date rape and spousal rape. "The typical American rapist might be the boy next door," Brownmiller wrote. She cautioned that men in intimate relationships with women "are invested with an assumed benevolence that may not exist." Looking at rape perpetrated by boyfriends and husbands challenged the popular narrative of the rapist as a depraved stranger jumping out of the bushes. It also defied the widespread perception that a woman "belonged" to her husband and existed in a perpetual state of consent. Brownmiller's insights here, along with the work of other feminist activists, helped bring about the first marital rape laws in the United States, passed in the late 1970s. Read TIME's 1976 Women of the Year' issue, here in the TIME Vault A Dozen Who Made a Difference