Review: Sex Object

Sex Object by Jessica Valenti
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm on roll lately with modern feminists (Solnit, Rebecca, Lindy West), and this was a good complement. Valenti (whose short essay https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandst... I read earlier this year) has created a very interesting book. She interweaves her own experience as a young woman with societal information about sexual harassment to make a point about being female that is both personal and backed by data. While I did find some of her decision-making more risky than my own around drugs and sex, that in no way diminished her claims that being a young woman (and, now, a woman-woman) in the United States in the 2000's can be scary, demeaning, demoralizing, and outright dangerous. From men on the subway to boys in school to people on the street, she relays stories of being harassed and ridiculed and injured, just for being a woman. She is stoking the outrage that so many of us wrongfully ignore on a daily basis.

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