The latest book of the very prolific cultural historian Joanna Bourke, professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London, at first sight seems a sequel to one of her previous monographs: Rape: A History from 1860 to the Present (2007), which sketched how Anglo-American countries have defined rape, though mostly how ideas about the male rapist have taken shape in the modern period. Indeed, Disgrace. Global Reflections on Sexual Violence equally addresses rape myths in modern history, shame, the question why (mostly) men commit a sexual offense, wartime rape, female perpetrators, and the slow criminalization of rape within marriage. Yet the book also contains new themes such as a critical discussion of online feminist activism, the voyeuristic elements of some journalism covering rape, and the vulnerabilities of Black lesbians in the townships of South Africa. Most importantly, it is a global, transnational, and intersectional study: all chapters consistently cover the intersection of sex, gender, race, class, religion, age, etcetera. Taking this illuminating global and intersectional approach, the book shows that structural inequalities make some people, such as transgender or queer persons, more vulnerable to sexual violence.

The book’s global perspective, moreover, is connected to its intersectional focus: it compares the causes, forms, and responses to rape in different countries and among people from different religions and ethnicities. As the author herself admits, this choice is selective and partially reflects her own research interests and the countries she lived in, resulting in discussions of the abolition of marital rape in Australia; the role of European, British and American psychiatrists in the pathologization of white, male offenders; the complicity of white slaveholder women in sexual abuse of enslaved people in the United States; the history of the Korean sex slaves (formerly euphemistically referred to as ‘comfort women’); and the role of rape in genocide in Congo, Rwanda, and former Yugoslavia, to name but a few. This global perspective provides refreshing perspectives, laying bare, for instance, the Eurocentrism of the psychiatric notion of trauma. The diverse case studies also give a good impression of the variability of sexual assault: although its form might seem similar globally, its content is different, so Bourke argues. This perspective underlines one of the book’s main arguments: that sexual assault is socially, historically, and culturally constructed and that essentialist arguments such as the idea that men are simply hardwired to rape are untrue and unhelpful when it comes to its abolition.

Ultimately, this is the author’s main goal: to eradicate sexual violence. The book’s title, Disgrace, refers to the fact that ‘in 1970s Britain, only one in three cases of rape that were reported to the police ended in a conviction. Today it is fewer than one in twenty.’ (p. 8). Bourke is angry and rightly so. It is refreshing that this book is unashamedly political and feminist. Bourke’s political aim also leads her to bravely formulate recommendations for the future eradication of sexual violence. We first need to get rid of the idea that the existence of rape is inevitable. Second, it is vital to acknowledge that contexts of inequity and masculinism are conducive to sexual abuse. Third, Bourke encourages different feminist movements to work together, celebrating difference, as well as aligning themselves with other progressive causes. This expression of hope is admirable, certainly considering the frequency and devastating impact of sexual violence all over the world that is described and analyzed in the book. This positive message dovetails with other recent studies on rape, like, for example, the book by Mithu Sanyal, Rape: From Lucretia to #MeToo (2019). Sanyal also pleas for going beyond the narrowing explanatory model of lifelong trauma for victims and points to mentality change, especially regarding masculinity, bodily autonomy, and pleasure. Perhaps not all readers will be taken by Bourke’s suggestion that sexual assault also may ‘inspire creative behaviour, bolster the development of closer interpersonal bonds with allies and encourage a clearer sense of self’ (p. 189). Nevertheless, the author manages to combine attention to the structural causes and culturally variable interpretations of sexual assault with concrete initial steps we can and should take to eradicate rape. Disgrace offers a nuanced, clear, and necessary historical, sociological, and feminist analysis of modern and contemporary sexual assault, which is accessible for many readers and offers at least a glimmer of hope in dark times.