Tackling Rape Culture: Ending Patriarchy

<p>In <i>Tackling Rape Culture: Ending Patriarchy</i> Jan Jordan asks why despite decades of feminist activism does rape culture remain so endemic within contemporary society. She argues that in order to understand the global pandemic of sexual violence we must view rape culture as a consequence of the social divisiveness that emerges from the logic of patriarchy. In advancing this argument Jordan offers a comprehensive indictment of the patriarchal system while recognising also women’s efforts to resist its edicts. Jordan critically explores two mechanisms that she argues are central to the maintenance and reproduction of rape culture - silencing and objectification. Both are examined as patriarchal strategies that have been relied on for centuries to control and constrain women’s lives silencing their voices and keeping them as ‘othered’ outsiders in a male-defined world. Women throughout history have sought ways to resist such control and since the second-wave women’s movement of the 1970s this has included multiple initiatives both offline and more recently online. While #MeToo is being hailed by many as evidence that the silencing of women’s voices about rape has finally been broken Jordan urges a more critical appraisal given the continued dominance of patriarchal thinking. To end rape culture Jordan argues we must end patriarchy.</p><p>This timely and provocative book which complements Jordan’s <i>Women Rape and Justice: Unravelling the Rape Conundrum</i> (Routledge 2022) will be of great interest to researchers students practitioners and activists seeking to understand and challenge the pervasive rape culture characterising contemporary patriarchal society. </p>