Customer Reviews

King Kong Theory

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Covering difficult territory - rape, prostitution - has longtime been the province of feminism and feminist theory. In this newly translated book, Virginie Despentes offers an uncompromising example of what Jane Gallop might call "Anecdotal Theorizing." Moving seamlessly back and forth between personal narrative and meta-reflection, "King Kong Theory" is a book to be reckoned with. At times entertaining, at times truly difficult to read, it asks us to reflect anew on the taint and terror of sexuality in quotidian discourses of femininity and social "agency." I recommend this book to anyone interested in feminist theories of the visual, feminist autobiography, sex and sexuality. But even more importantly, I recommend this to anyone who thinks feminism is dated. With Virginie Despente, I say to them: "Feminism is a collective adventure, for women, men and everyone else. A revolution, well under way. A worldview. A choice. It's not a matter of contrasting women's small advantages with men's small assets, but of sending the whole lot flying." This is something that has been said before, but it is something that still bears saying. My hope is that reading this book will support and inspire a new generation of feminist thinker-makers to raise their voices, however they see fit.

King Kong Theory kicks butt! I devoured every hairy page like a hungry monster, and it was absolutely delicious and satisfying. When Virginie Despentes roars, what a thrill. When she purrs, its pure love. She unravels the mysteries of sex work, pornography, and femininity. Finally someone has done it! The feminist movement needs the King Kong Theory now more than ever. A must read for every sex worker, tranny, punk, queer, john, academic, pornographer--and for all those people that dislike them too. I'm buying copies for all the people I care about, so that they too can gain the insight into the nature of our beasts. Virginie Despuentes is my shero.

Annie Sprinkle, Ph.D., Sexecologist, Artist, Author

I devoured King Kong theory in one long delicious reading. This was nothing less than a miracle because I had so many other books/emails/memos/boring bureaucratic letters that I was supposed to be reading. But, from the first line, "I am writing as an ugly one, for the ugly ones:" I was hooked. The heat that this book exudes is reminiscent of of Valarie Solaris' SCUM manifesto but instead of calling for gendercide this book calls for women just to take their power and laugh in the faces of all those who would prefer that we be silently polite in the face of never ending misogyny. A beautiful, powerful manifesto that reads like a post porn punk country love song and a must read for all of us who have ever felt ugly-or beautiful for that matter.

I loved this book. Like the other reviewer said, from the first line I devoured it hungrily. I spent four years studying sociology, for a degree in sexuality and gender studies. I've read plenty of feminism, from different perspectives. Yet I found this book to be at once new, vast, and well-grounded.

Virginie Despentes spirit is amazing. I have read a few bad reviews of this book, where people focused on small details and missed the forest for the trees. You wouldn't read Harry Potter and try to keep analyzing it and pulling it apart in relation to your own thoughts, would you? Yet this book is largely a narrative as well, and needs to be seen through her eyes and heard through her voice. This perspective will reveal that her view is very broad and encompassing. I was amazed at the way she rendered her experiences, laid her full set of feelings out in clear language, then related these things to the broader culture.

During my reading of the book, I kept finding myself wanting to stand up and say "yes, yes!" It was like she was speaking to my human soul, rather than as an academic, or a feminist, or anything else. Her book is profoundly real, and I think if anyone allows her words to stand on their own, and to see them from her perspective, it will change their understanding of culture, women, and men.