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How a Book Changed the Way We Talk About Rape

Susan Brownmiller, poses with her book “Against Our Will - Men,

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Women and Rape” in New York City on Oct. 18, 1975 Suzanne
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BY SASCHA COHEN
OCTOBER
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I n October of 1975, TIME named feminist journalist Susan Brownmiller “the

first rape celebrity who is neither rapist nor rapee.”

The very idea of a “rape celebrity” sounds shocking today, and it was at the
time as well. Brownmiller’s celebrity status was the result of her
groundbreaking book Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape, published
precisely forty years ago. The bestseller was one of the first books to define
rape as a political problem rather than an individual crime of passion. In
addition to launching Brownmiller into the public eye—she appeared as one of
TIME’s 12 “Women of the Year” two months later—Against Our Will brought
the ideas of the feminist anti-rape movement into the mainstream.

Decades later, her arguments are still relevant as politicians, college

administrators and activists struggle to address the problem of sexual violence.

Rape had been cloaked in stigma and silence for much of American history.
Prior to the women’s movement of the 1970s, it was understood to be a rare
occurrence, as few survivors came forward. The reasons for this are now
obvious: In the 1960s and earlier, a rape victim seeking help would be met,
instead, with blame and suspicion. Neither police departments nor hospitals
had trained trauma counselors or procedures for collecting evidence or testing
for disease. Filing criminal charges required “corroboration” of the assault
from witnesses, and a woman’s sexual past could be used by the defense to
discredit her accusation. Brownmiller’s book was part of a larger effort by
feminists to change both laws and public attitudes, and to transform a culture
that undervalued women’s bodily autonomy. Against Our Will came out just as
anti-rape activists began to create crisis centers, hotlines, self-defense classes
and other forms of support for rape survivors.

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In her book, Brownmiller identified a number of deeply ingrained myths about

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rape: that it is motivated by uncontrollable
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TIME described this thesis as “startling,” and called Against Our Will a
“convincing and awesome portrait of men’s cruelty to women.” Indeed,
Brownmiller’s stated purpose in the book was to “give rape its history,” and she
details incidents of sexual violence dating back to the ancient Babylonians, as
well as traditions of wartime rape in the modern era. Her emphasis on rape as a
tactic in war and other forms of political conflict framed sexual violence as a
collective social problem as well as a deliberate, calculated act meant to
humiliate and degrade the victim.

Part of what made Against Our Will so radical was its attention to date rape
and spousal rape. “The typical American rapist might be the boy next door,”
Brownmiller wrote. She cautioned that men in intimate relationships with
women “are invested with an assumed benevolence that may not exist.”
Looking at rape perpetrated by boyfriends and husbands challenged the
popular narrative of the rapist as a depraved stranger jumping out of the
bushes. It also defied the widespread perception that a woman “belonged” to
her husband and existed in a perpetual state of consent. Brownmiller’s insights
here, along with the work of other feminist activists, helped bring about the
first marital rape laws in the United States, passed in the late 1970s.

Against Our Will had its fair share of critics; most notably, Angela Davis, bell
hooks and other feminists of color, who took issue with Brownmiller’s
treatment of race as it related to sexual violence. “Many of [the] arguments are
pervaded with racist ideas,” Davis later wrote, including “the resuscitation of
the old racist myth of the Black rapist.” She referred particularly to
Brownmiller’s discussion of Emmett Till, a 14 year-old black boy lynched in
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1955 for whistling at a white woman. Brownmiller called the whistle a

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Asked recently if her positions on the topic have evolved, Brownmiller told
TIME that she “stands by every word” of her book. Nor does the author budge
on her anti-prostitution and anti-pornography stance, which Against Our Will
argued was “central to the fight against rape,” even as many feminists now
reject the idea that decriminalized sex work and pornography contribute to
violence against women. Brownmiller remains steadfast in her commitment to
a 1970s radical feminist worldview, although a new generation of activists
challenges that ideology. The anti-rape movement has in fact changed in many
ways since 1975, expanding its focus to include the experiences of male
survivors, the problems with college sexual conduct policies and the issue of
other forms of unwanted sexual attention, such as street harassment.

Still, Against Our Will laid the groundwork for that activism. What today’s
feminists describe as “rape culture” has its roots in Brownmiller’s theory of
rape as a means of social control, her emphasis on gender role socialization
and her critique of the glorification of sexual violence in the media. When
young women share their experiences with rape through art projects, at
university events, and on social media, they are participating in a tradition of
“speaking out” initiated by second-wave feminists like Brownmiller. Survivors
of sexual violence now live in a world where they know they are not alone,
where they can access a variety of resources and where discussions about
consent happen with frequency.

In fact, the rate of sexual assault and rape decreased by about 50% between
1993 and 2013, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics—but it still
happens. According to RAINN, a rape takes place every two minutes, with 68%
of them going unreported, and only two out of every 100 rapists serving prison
time. Brownmiller continues to see the problem as a political one. Feminists
have “lost ground on rape,” she tells me, “as our nation has drifted rightward
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on women’s issues.” Asked what challenges remain for the anti-rape

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movement, Brownmiller instead looks
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Historians explain how the past informs the present

Sascha Cohen is a PhD candidate in the history department at Brandeis

University, specializing in the social and cultural history of 1970s America.

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