Asking for It: the Alarming Rise of Rape Culture and What We Can Do About It

Publisher Marketing:"Asking for It "is the first nonacademic, single-author book since the 1990s to examine sexual assault as a social phenomenon. Noted blogger and author Kate Harding s provocative, sharp, and yes, funny book tackles rape culture and also offers some suggestions for moving toward a culture that fully respects and supports victims while protecting the rights of the accused. Dominique Strauss-Kahn s arrest, Congressman Todd Akin s legitimate gaffe, the alleged rape crew of Steubenville, Ohio sexual violence has been so prominent in recent years that the feminist term "rape culture" has finally entered the mainstream. But what, exactly, is it? And how do we change it?In "Asking for It," Kate Harding answers those questions in the same blunt, no-nonsense voice that has made her a powerhouse feminist blogger. Combining in-depth research with practical knowledge, "Asking for It" makes the case that twenty-first-century America where it s estimated that out of every one hundred rapes only five result in felony convictions supports rapists more effectively than victims. Harding offers ideas and suggestions for addressing how we as a culture can take rape much more seriously without compromising the rights of the accused." Review Citations: Library Journal 09/01/2015 pg. 126 (EAN 9780738217024, Paperback) Contributor Bio:  Harding, Kate Kate Harding has been writing popular feminist rants for Internet audiences since 2007, most notably at Jezebel", at "Salon" s "Broadsheet" blog, and at her own body-acceptance blog, "Shapely Prose". She s also the coauthor of "Lessons from the Fat-o-sphere", a major contributor to "The Book of Jezebel", and an essayist who s been published in several anthologies, including "Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World without Rape". Kate recently started a new Tumblr blog, "Don t Get Raped" (victimblaming.tumblr.com), which uses news items about sexual assault to catalog the many situations women and men and children have to avoid to fully protect themselves against the threat of rape. She lives in Chicago.