Review by Choice Review
Hattery (George Mason Univ.) and Smith (Wake Forest Univ.) provide an accessible introduction to the problem of sexual violence in American culture. Their work focuses particularly on the role that institutions and the environments they construct play in the perpetuation of sexual violence in society, drawing on examples from fraternities, the Roman Catholic Church, and the military. For the authors, the institutions featured are classic totalizing establishments that allow gender-based violence to persist by sustaining sophisticated practices of complicity through time. In addition to their focus on institutional cultures, the authors discuss with equal clarity the interpersonal dimensions and individual responses to sexual violence within which the #MeToo movement has developed. Importantly, the volume concludes by providing practical pathways for addressing sexual violence. The authors suggest that readers focus on institutional responses, reminding them that these have much power to compel behavior and set norms. Institutions can be transformative, the authors argue, when they ensure that there are clear processes that identify sexual violence as transgressive in working and living environments--processes that hold perpetrators accountable. Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduates and general readers. --M. Gabriela Torres, Wheaton College, MA
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
