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Women and Psychology
Just Sex?: The Cultural Scaffolding of Rape
Winner of the Association for Women In Psychology 2006 Distinguished Publication Award! The past two decades have witnessed a significant shift in how rape is understood in Western societies. This shift in perception has revealed the startling frequency of occurrences of date rape, obscuring the divide between rape and what was once just sex. Just Sex? combines an overview of the existing literature with an analysis of recent research to examine the psychological and cultural implications of this new epidemic. The result is the conclusion that feminist theory on sexual victimisation has gone both too far and not far enough. The reader is presented with a challenging and original perspective on the issues of rape, sex and the body, incorporating subjects
* rape as a social problem
* the social constructionism of sex, subjectivity and the body
* heterosexuality under the microscope
This book succeeds in making a valuable contribution to feminist and social contructionist work on rape that will be of interest to those studying psychology, gender studies, cultural studies and sociology. Just Sex? The Cultural Scaffolding of Rape was selected as a 2005 winner of AWP's (Association for Women in Psychology) distinguished publication award.
* rape as a social problem
* the social constructionism of sex, subjectivity and the body
* heterosexuality under the microscope
This book succeeds in making a valuable contribution to feminist and social contructionist work on rape that will be of interest to those studying psychology, gender studies, cultural studies and sociology. Just Sex? The Cultural Scaffolding of Rape was selected as a 2005 winner of AWP's (Association for Women in Psychology) distinguished publication award.
280 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2005
9 people are currently reading
245 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 7, 2019
This is easily the best social-science book on the topic of rape and sexual violence that I have ever read. Not only does Gavey delve deeply into the history of rape discourse (really something that only began in the late 1960s), but she addresses head-on the way that our discourse about heterosexuality itself confounds and confuses the way that we think about rape and sexual violence. This is a smart, smart book.
July 26, 2017
The fact that Niccola Gavey instructs her students in theory from this book which apologizes for rape is nothing short of a scandal. She describes heterosexual males as being 'unrapeable' by females. She bemoans that concern for male rape victims as a 'newsworthy distraction' at worst, rather than a legitimate concern.
An algebraic formula is even established by Gavey, where by if 'x' happens to a woman it is rape but if 'x' happens to a man it is NOT. What 'x' amounts to is left deliberately vague, but the point to be taken is that Gavey does not consider the assault of male victims in any circumstance concerning, and even appears jealous of the sympathy a male victim might receive.
How is this person to be taken seriously as an authority on the subject of gender politics or sexual assault?
An algebraic formula is even established by Gavey, where by if 'x' happens to a woman it is rape but if 'x' happens to a man it is NOT. What 'x' amounts to is left deliberately vague, but the point to be taken is that Gavey does not consider the assault of male victims in any circumstance concerning, and even appears jealous of the sympathy a male victim might receive.
How is this person to be taken seriously as an authority on the subject of gender politics or sexual assault?
November 14, 2014
Absolute utter garbage if you ask me. I only read this because it was prescribed as a reading for the course I was doing. It offered nothing but prejudiced and biased data and research design on what constitute as Rape and the myths surrounding it through qualitative sociological analysis.
With a line like: "Why, I wondered, would women choose to have intercourse when the consequences could be so devastating?" and "Women living in misogynist totalitarian conditions" would be enough to tell you why this "book" is completely cringeworthy and all copies should have been destroyed before corrupting the minds of young women.
With a line like: "Why, I wondered, would women choose to have intercourse when the consequences could be so devastating?" and "Women living in misogynist totalitarian conditions" would be enough to tell you why this "book" is completely cringeworthy and all copies should have been destroyed before corrupting the minds of young women.
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May 7, 2009Awesome. I used this so much during my thesis research and writing!
January 15, 2024
grave bien :)
December 4, 2008
This book combines Foucauldian discourse analysis with empirical social psychology research to examine the ways in which Western cultural assumptions about heterosexual relationships create a "cultural scaffolding of rape." Gavey does not argue that all sex is rape*. Rather, she argues that many underlying assumptions about heterosexual sex--from female passivity and insatiable male sex drives to the the coital imperative--create gray areas of sexual coercion that are not quite rape but clearly also not "just sex." In order to adequately prevent rape, we need to re-conceptualize "normal" sexual relations between men and women.
Because Gavey is interested in cultural assumptions regarding heterosex, she does not discuss rape of men by men or women by women. She does acknowledge that such rapes occur, however. She also engages with research of women as perpetrators of sexual violence against men, but finds the existing literature inadequate. Gavey argues strongly against equivalence arguments that analyze rape of men by women through gender reversal metaphors (i.e. when this happens to a woman we understand it this way, so when it happens to men we must understand it the same way.) Rather she believes that rape of men must be theorized for its particularity.
*nor do other radical feminists who are often accused of holding that position. Both Andrea Dworkin and Catherine Mackinnon have refuted interpretations of their work that lead to the conclusion "all sex is rape."
Because Gavey is interested in cultural assumptions regarding heterosex, she does not discuss rape of men by men or women by women. She does acknowledge that such rapes occur, however. She also engages with research of women as perpetrators of sexual violence against men, but finds the existing literature inadequate. Gavey argues strongly against equivalence arguments that analyze rape of men by women through gender reversal metaphors (i.e. when this happens to a woman we understand it this way, so when it happens to men we must understand it the same way.) Rather she believes that rape of men must be theorized for its particularity.
*nor do other radical feminists who are often accused of holding that position. Both Andrea Dworkin and Catherine Mackinnon have refuted interpretations of their work that lead to the conclusion "all sex is rape."
November 3, 2025
Mandatory reading for anyone who's interested in going beyond commonplace ideas on sexual violence. Gavey theorises here the existence of grey zones, a concept that has been widely adopted and gives a very nuanced (and actionable) interpretation of the most ordinary violence that lies in many of our sexual encounters.
« I argue that [these] everyday taken-for-granted normative forms of heterosexuality work as a cultural scaffolding for rape. This is not to say that these normative forms of sex are rape or that they are the same as rape. And it is certainly not to say that all, or much, of everyday sex between men and women is rape-like. »
« under standing the strict norms of sex that we currently know (as heterosex, as coupled, as coitus) as culturally produced rather than self-evidently natural »
We need spaces where « different experiences and views about sex can be seen through a different lens so that they can be understood as equally legitimate rather than subtly pathologized and/or disregarded. For instance, there is still some sense in which it is culturally expected that a woman should be flattered by a man’s sexual attention. »
« within the dominant constructions of heterosex a woman may sometimes end up having unwanted sex with a man because it either does not occur to her to question it, or it does not seem within the realm of possibility that it is a truly negotiable point. »
« I would want to argue that research on the possibilities of both women’s sexual aggression and men’s sexual victimization (especially within a heterosexual matrix) are important for a feminist rape prevention agenda »
« I argue that [these] everyday taken-for-granted normative forms of heterosexuality work as a cultural scaffolding for rape. This is not to say that these normative forms of sex are rape or that they are the same as rape. And it is certainly not to say that all, or much, of everyday sex between men and women is rape-like. »
« under standing the strict norms of sex that we currently know (as heterosex, as coupled, as coitus) as culturally produced rather than self-evidently natural »
We need spaces where « different experiences and views about sex can be seen through a different lens so that they can be understood as equally legitimate rather than subtly pathologized and/or disregarded. For instance, there is still some sense in which it is culturally expected that a woman should be flattered by a man’s sexual attention. »
« within the dominant constructions of heterosex a woman may sometimes end up having unwanted sex with a man because it either does not occur to her to question it, or it does not seem within the realm of possibility that it is a truly negotiable point. »
« I would want to argue that research on the possibilities of both women’s sexual aggression and men’s sexual victimization (especially within a heterosexual matrix) are important for a feminist rape prevention agenda »
November 8, 2022
piece of crap
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 6, 2016
The argument was compelling and even though I didn't finish the book, it was clearly well researched. The only issue I had was with her claim that calling certain things rape is hyperbole, since a lot of feminists do believe in the literal reality that those certain things are rape. I can't remember exactly what it was but it seemed more like a misunderstanding or maybe a different kind of feminism at that time. I want to finish the book but having been raped and sexually assaulted, it is rather burdensome to read about it all day for extended periods of time.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews