On Rape, by Germaine Greer #BookReview

Germaine Greer’s contribution to the Melbourne University Press Little Books on Big Ideas series is called On Rape; the series is complementary to their Little Books on Big Themes (of which I have reviewed two: David Malouf’s On Experience and Susan Johnson’s On Beauty.

This is the blurb:

“It’s time to rethink rape. Centuries of different approaches to rape—as inflicted by men on women—have got us nowhere”.

Rape statistics remain intractable: one woman in five will experience sexual violence. Very few rapes find their way into court. The crucial issue is consent, thought by some to be easy to establish and by others impossible.
Sexual assault does not diminish; relations between the sexes do not improve; litigation balloons.

In On Rape Germaine Greer argues there has to be a better way.”

For a such a little book it has created quite a furore: it’s only 92 pages, of which…