KatieMc

5 stars for the message, but come closer, I don't want to say this too loudly... it felt like garden variety investigative reporting, nothing that transcended the subject matter in a profound way.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great book either. So 3 stars for the book.

Now that I got that out of the way, let's discuss the subject matter.  It's about rape and how these crimes are prosecuted (or more often not).  It about how the victims of these crimes (mostly women) are treated both in context of the formal justice system, the college/university disciplinary system, and in the court of popular opinion.    It's about myths that are propagated and used as tools to blame the victim.   Anyone reading this book should become angry.   Even though there are several reviews here on goodreads that spell out these myths and facts, they are worth stating. 

Myths about rape
* A woman will physically fight their rapist
* A woman will scream for help when being raped
* A woman will go through the pain and humiliation of reporting a rape just to ruin a man's reputation

Facts about rape https://rainn.org/statistics




While it seems like poor Missoula Montana is being singled out, it only serves as a microcosm of what is happening all over college campuses in the US.  Especially ones where male athletes are revered and their bright futures are fetishized so much that anyone who dares to knock them off their pedestal must surely has a grudge to bear.

Worst of all, deeply seeded biases in law enforcement and the judicial system make it so women who report rape are met with skepticism. Are you sure you were raped?  Just because he didn't cuddle with you afterwards doesn't mean he raped you.  Sady, the rape apologist people who need to read this the most are probably the ones who will never read it.  For the rest of you, if you don't have time to read a 300+ page book about rape culture, I do recommend this article, the one that seemed to be the catalyst for the author's investigations into the rape culture.

http://jezebel.com/5908472/my-weekend-in-americas-so-called-rape-capital

Whether you read this book or not, please make sure you call people out on their BS when they are perpetuating the rape culture.  While there are many genuine asshats out there (George Will, I'm looking at you) who will be impervious to criticism, there are many people who haven't really thought about what the rape culture means and some gentle recalibration will help everyone.