Rough cover art

Rough

How Violence Has Found Its Way into the Bedroom and What We Can Do about It

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Rough

By: Rachel Thompson
Narrated by: Rachel Thompson
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

A bad sexual experience.

A grey area.

Not rape but....

A violation - these are the terms we use to describe the experiences we don't have words for. The way we talk about topics such as sex, consent, assault aren't fit for purpose.

Rough is a revolutionary nonfiction work exploring the narratives of sexual violence that we don't talk about. Through powerful testimony from 50 women and non-binary people, this book shines a light on the sexual violence that takes place in our bedrooms and beyond, sometimes at the hands of people we know, trust, or even love. Rough investigates violations such as 'stealthing', non-consensual choking, and non-consensual rough sex acts that our culture is only starting to recognise as sexual violence.

The book explores the ways in which systems of oppression manifest in our sexual culture - from racist microaggressions, to fatphobic acts of aggression and ableist dehumanising behaviour. An intersectional, sex-positive, kink-positive work, the book also examines how white supremacy, transphobia, biphobia, homophobia and misogyny are driving forces behind sexual violence.

Rough is an urgent, timely call for change to the systems that oppress us all. It's time for a societal shift. As individuals with agency within our sexual culture we have the power to remodel our behaviour and this book shows us how.

©2021 Rachel Thompson (P)2021 Penguin Audio
Gender Studies Human Sexuality Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Sciences Violence in Society

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All stars
Most relevant
Hard to listen in places as the injustice of our legal system is enraging. A very important book that I feel all young people would benefit from reading in their teens before the rot of misogyny and porn sets in

Insightful

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She makes the grey areas so clear, and also doesn't get bogged down in weighing different perspectives from a purely theoretical standpoint – the women and non-binary people's stories are used throughout to really clearly illustrate the points made. It's also very wide-ranging, I think the title of the book is somewhat misleading as it pigeonholes the topic somewhat, as actually the book covers many different overlapping topics. I hope enough people read this book.

Very powerful and easily understandable

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This was unfortunately not the insightful book I was hoping it would be. Very one sided with no mention of a woman’s role or responsibilities.

A very one sided woke depiction

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