Traffic in women, prostitution, wife-beating, and polygyny. For
sociologist Barry all are forms of sexual slavery, all conditions
that hold women hostage while subjecting them to violence and
exploitation. The net is cast wide (perhaps too wide, including
enforced marriage and pornography, Patty Hearst's kidnapping and
early crusades against prostitution) in order to emphasize the
shared "sex is power" justification. The argument is strongest
where the material is the freshest - current traffic in women and
prostitution - which Barry considers near-indistinguishable
theoretically: "I found that street pimp strategies and goals do
not differ significantly from those of international procurers."
From interviews, study of secondary accounts and official
documents, she describes the "slaughterhouses" of Paris, where
prostitutes never leave their beds, the slave markets of Zanzibar,
numerous cases of forced marriages and abductions, and, closer to
home, the "Minneapolis connection" piping Midwestern runaways into
the New York prostitution network. She argues against romanticizing
prostitution and against viewing it as a profession. Instead,
picking up on Susan Brownmiller's Against Our Will, she sees all
forms of sexual violence as resulting from patriarchy. "Why do men
do these things to women? Because, in part, there is nothing to
stop them." And she notes as a contributory factor that some men
never lose the adolescent notion that the sex drive is
uncontrollable, hence abuses excusable. What Barry proposes by way
of remedy starts with redefining perversion and re-emphasizing
intimacy, includes creating support structures for all victims of
sexual violence, and extends to decriminalization of prostitution.
Some is rehash here, some is new; and some is a potent reminder
that feminism needs to be more than a "self-improvement ideology."
(Kirkus Reviews)
"A powerful work filled with disbelief, outrage, and
documentation...sexual bondage shackles women as much today as it
has for centures."
--"Los Angeles Times"
"Exposes the dark side of sexuality and dares to ask the crucial
question, 'why do men do these things to women?'...the issues it
raises deserve nationwide attention."
--Susan Brownmiller
"Kathy Barry has written a courageous, crusading book that
should be read everywhere, from the local District Attorney's
office to the United Nations."
--Gloria Steinem
"This powerful and compassionate book should be read by anyone
concerned with social values, with sexuality, with psychology --
female "and" male."
--Adrienne Rich
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