Sex Object: A Memoir

Author: Jessica Valenti

Rating: ⭐ 4/5

Date Read: 2016/12/29

Pages: 205

Here are some events, endured by yours truly, perpetrated by strangers:

-Guy trying to walk me home while aggressively flirting and asking for my contact information, culminating in me walking in the complete opposite direction from my apartment so that I could go inside a coffee shop instead of leading him to my home.

-Some random guy reaching up my skirt at a house party in college and grabbing me before I could get away from him (note to self: was this Donald Trump?).

-Practically jogging down a steep sidewalk in San Francisco and darting into a cell phone store just to lose the guy who had been following me after I refused to date him.

-Ignoring countless men who cat called from cars, from sidewalks, from the seemingly innocuous “Hey beautiful” to the much more obnoxious “Wanna fuck?”

-Dealing with cat callers calling me a bitch or saying I shouldn’t walk outside looking like that (how else should I look if not like myself?) when I ignore their advances.

-Having well intentioned men tell me to take these types of situations as a compliment, not understanding that I actually feared for my safety.

Sex Object is not a humorous book. Jessica Valenti says as much in her introduction: many feminists use humor and inspiration to get their message across, but it’s also okay to be serious (even if people on the internet call you a man hater and say they would only screw you if you were gagged). I definitely recommend this to young women who consider this type of behavior normal, who don’t consider themselves feminists. This is not normal. And we should all be feminists.