Status Updates From Rape: A History From 1860 T...

The emergence of the term "sexual psychopath" arose in a period where it was politically expedient for governments to seem tough on crime. This diagnosis could lead to indefinite incarceration and circumvented legal processes and verdicts, and often applied to non-violent sex criminals (including gays). The most violent sex criminals may not have been subject to this as they didn't display symptoms of mental illness.

I hate psychoanalysis, not least of all because a woman is always to blame for a man's behaviour. Apparently men are exhibitionists because they have narcissistic mothers or frigid wives. One cure depends on directing their rage upon their wives, another demands that their wife is sexually available at any time to him. Exhibitionists are white men, men of colour are indecent exposers.

It's sad to point this out, but really appreciating the author's continual attention to questions about class, sexuality and, particularly, race in this book. Chapter on exhibitionism notes experts' 'confusion' regarding lower incidences of exhibitionism in non-white men compared with white. The conclusions these experts draw are still racist, go figure.

Discussion of female rapists focussed on social anxieties of the day: class, then women's lib, idea of women emulating men. Male rape victims treated with even more skepticism than females in studies: thought to be making false allegations, that the lasting impact less severe. Bodily responses (erections, ejaculations) seen as confirmation they 'wanted it'. How these responses actually closer to a form of paralysis.

Excellent discussion about the problem of treating the rapist as unwell or criminal, of medical or legal categorisation and outcome. Medical opinion is disregarded in courts unless it serves to deliver legal justice. The proximity of both approaches differs according to political expediency.

Chapter on female aggressors: opens with Lynndie England at Abu Ghraib, the vulnerability of male bodies.