(HarperCollins, February 2019)
A new edition of the 1988 classic text that exposed the extreme prevalence of rape in America, coining the term acquaintance rape and establishing the disturbing statistics on sexual assault that still hold just as true today—now featuring an original preface from Gloria Steinem, a new introduction by Salamishah Tillet, an updated afterword by Mary P. Koss, Ph.D., as well as an updated resources section.
In 1988, Robin Warshaw wrote I Never Called It Rape, the ground-breaking book that revealed a staggering truth: in a study of students on college campuses, 25% of women were the victims of rape or attempted rape. Over 80% of these women knew their assailants.
Warshaw based her reportage on the first large-scale study into rape ever, conducted by Ms. magazine in the late 80s. Thirty years later, we now have a wealth of statistics on date rape. The disturbing truth is that the figures have not diminished. That our culture enables rape is not just shown by the numbers—the outbreak of allegations against serial rapists from Bill Cosby to Harvey Weinstein and the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump, a man who was recorded bragging about sexual assault, have further amplified this horrifying truth.
With over 80,000 copies sold to date, I Never Called It Rape has served as a guide to understanding rape as a cultural phenomenon for tens of thousands—providing women and men with strategies to address our rape endemic and survivors with the context and resources to help them heal from their experiences. This book pulls the wool from all our eyes on the pervasiveness of rape and sexual assault today.
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“Essential . . . It is nonpolemical, lucid, and speaks eloquently not only to the victims of acquaintance rape but to all those caught in its net.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer
“Painstakingly researched . . . chilling.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Provocative and important.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A devastating portrait of men who rape women they know… based on first-person accounts, scholarly studies and data from a nationwide survey of college campuses.”
—Publishers Weekly
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When Ms. magazine was launched as a “one-shot” sample insert in New York magazine in December 1971, few realized it would become the landmark institution in both women’s rights and American journalism that it is today. The founders of Ms., many of whom are now household names, helped to shape contemporary feminism. Ms. was the first national magazine to make feminist voices audible, feminist journalism tenable, and a feminist worldview available to the public. Today, the magazine remains an interactive enterprise in which an unusually diverse readership is simultaneously engaged with each other and the world. Ms. continues to be an award-winning magazine recognized nationally and internationally as the media expert on issues relating to women’s status, women’s rights, and women’s points of view. For more about Ms., visit http://msmagazine.com.