Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape

THE BESTSELLING FEMINIST CLASSIC

.
.
WOMEN
AND
RAPE

A U T H O R O F
F E M I N I N I T Y

"Chilling and monumental... Deserves a place next to those

rare books which force us to change the way we feel about what we know,"

The New York Times Book Review

"STARTLING
. . .
EYEOPENING
. . .

Against Our Will
is a history of rape in all its overt and subtle manifestations.
It
is a consciousness-raising session that should force both men and women to agonize over their assumptions.
It
is a nuts-and-bolts program for dragging rape laws into the 20th century. Not least of all, it explains why feminists are concerned about the issue of rape, and what they intend for all of us to do about it besides wring our hands."

The New York Times

"Susan Brownmiller has succeeded in that ra rest and most difficult task: She has written a book that not only must be read but also is readable. As a literary experience this book is as excellent as its ideas.
Against Our Will
offers an entire world view, one that no one has presented before and that no one would ever have thought of without the women's movement. . . . [Brownmiller] sustains her arguments with clarity and absolute control: taut, light, and sure. There are no irrelevancies, few unsecured threads, and many surprises in her historical survey and analysis. Hu mor, compassion, anger, and forbearance are applied where appropriate, and under no circumstances could anyone be justified in dismissing this book as strident."

Chicago Tribune Book World

"This is a radical book in the truest sense of the word, a book certain to change the way we think, not just about the act of rape, but more fundamentally, about the relationships between men and women . . . . Brilliantly and convincingly argued . . .
Against Our Will
is thoroughly researched, carefully documented and lucidly written, a work of stunning originality which goes far beyond the statistics of rape to challenge some of society's most accepted assumptions . . . . A landmark work, one of the most significant books to emerge in this decade."

Houston Chronicle

"A definitive text, startling, compelling, and a landmark . . . . Brownmiller deserves much credit for being able to avoid radical rhetoric and sticking to excellent reporting in the face of such explosive findings . . .
Against Our Will
is a monumental work and a thoroughly chilling eye opener.
It
forced me to rethink my entire position as a woman and, in the process, it made me extremely uncomfortable-as it should."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"An overwhelming indictment. We need it, it is a hideous revelation and it should be required reading."

Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Chilling, monumental, exhaustive, detailed, absorbing and original. . . . Brownmiller's greatest contribution is establishing the continuity between rape and other facets of American culture."

Commonweal

Against

Our Will

M en, Women
and Rape

Fawcett Columbine • New York

Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized.
If
this book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as "unsold or destroyed" and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it.

A Fawcett Columbine Book Published by Ballantine Books

Copyright ©
i975
by Susan Brownmiller

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada Limit ed, Toronto.

This edition published by arrangement with Simon and Schuster.

The author gratefully acknowledges permission to reprint material from the following sources:

ABKCO Music, Inc., for material from "Midnight Rambler" by Mick Jagger and Keith Richard; copyright ©
i969.
All rights reserved.

Beacon Press for material from
The Winter Soldier Investigation: An Inquiry Into American War Crimes
by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, copyright ©
i972
by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Inc.

The Belknap Press of Harvard University for material from
Bracton on the Laws and Customs of England,
Vol. II, Samuel
E.
Thorne, translator and editor; copyright

©
i968
by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Grune and Stratton, Inc., and Dr. Helene Deutsch for material from
The Psychology of Women,
Vols. I
&
II,
by Dr. Helene Deutsch; copyright
i944, 1945;
copyright renewed ©
1971
by Helene Deutsch.

The Journal Press and W. H. Blanchard for material from "The Group Process in Gang Rape," by W. H. Blanchard, from
The Journal of Social Psycholog y,
1959, 49, 259-66.

Random House, Inc., for material from
I K now Why the Caged Bird Sings
by

Maya Angelou, copyright ©
1969
by Maya Angelou. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number:
92-97327
ISBN:
0-449-90820-8

Cover design
by
Georgia Morrissey Manufactured in the United States of America First
Ballantine
Books Edition: June 1993

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9 8 7 6

CONTENTS