Not Child's Play: An Anthology on Brother-Sister Incest [Paperback]

Risa Shaw (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 156 pages
• Publisher: Lunchbox Pr Inc (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970423500
• ISBN-13: 978-0970423504
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #772,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Speaking up and speaking out changes everything.", July 24, 2002

By 

Rebecca Young (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not Child's Play: An Anthology on Brother-Sister Incest (Paperback)

This line in Risa Shaw's complex and beautifully-composed anthology on brother-sister sexual abuse perfectly captures the power of this little gem of a book.

Shaw has collected the voices and art of 35 survivors, and she let's them speak up and out in complex and non-homogenized ways. The editing for this volume is beautiful, as the brief pieces are clear but not in any way standardized in content or form. Here you will meet women who explode with unequivocal rage, stories of girls who told and girls who kept quiet, families who stopped it and (many more) families who didn't, women who have patiently and lovingly cultivated honest adult relationships with their former abusers, women whose demands for truth have cost them their families, and women whose deeply complicated and ambivalent memories make room simultaneously for shame, hurt, fear, and pleasure.

I do not *agree* with every analysis that's offered in this book, but why should I? There is such a glorious chorus of smart voices here that invites a great new level of discussion to commence on this severely under-discussed topic. For example, Margaret Randall writes "Brother-sister incest is not about sex. It is not about pleasure. It is about power, pure and simple" (foreword, p. 2). I think that's too simple - I read many of the pieces in the book as demonstrating how brother-sister sexual abuse is so damaging precisely because it IS about sex and pleasure at the same time that it is about power. Deep, systematic power imbalances distort both girls' and boys' experiences of pleasure and sexual development. I welcome the opportunity to have this discussion, finally! Brava to Risa Shaw and the many contributors. And one additional note: the book is worth it for the Action Girl Figures alone. Simply brilliant!

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oustanding, ground-breaking work :), July 24, 2002

By 

"[e-mail]" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not Child's Play: An Anthology on Brother-Sister Incest (Paperback)

This anthology is an amazing work. After decades of silence about the issue of brother-sister incest, we finally have a book that is as inspiring as it is informative. The anthology includes writing and artwork drawn from 35 women. This is not a book about victims. It is a book about survivors-- about strong women who learned to say no, who learned to speak out against this often-ignored form of violence in hopes that future generations of children could be protected.

I found the book an exhilerating roller-coaster ride of emotions, ranging from raw, unbridled anger, to eventual healing and a sense of wholeness. This is a book written for everyone. It includes powerful short stories, poetry, and visual artwork. It will make you angry, it will make you sad, and it will leave you in awe at the resilence of the human spirit. But the one thing it won't do is leave you untouched.

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It helped me find my own voice..., November 26, 2004

By 

Kathleen A. (Bridgewater, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not Child's Play: An Anthology on Brother-Sister Incest (Paperback)

I first heard about this wonderful book from a male friend who thought it might help me come to terms with my abusive past. I had just started therapy and was almost afraid to read it, so it sat on my desk for awhile. Yes, the emotions this book brought out in me were extremely strong, it brought back a lot of pain and sorrow but the most positive thing it did for me was to make me realize that I was not alone...these women had similar histories but they survived, WERE survivors and were able to voice their feelings.

Never having been a fan of poetry before, imagine my surprise when I began writing my own poems - some very short, some long but all emotional, heartwrenching and true. For the first time, I was able to put in black and white some of those feelings that I had bottled up for almost 40 years. As many survivors will tell you, it's so much easier to ignore your feelings so you don't have to deal with them...or the reasons behind them, but "easy" isn't necessarily healthy or constructive. Shutting down emotionally may dull the pain and make it so we can get through each day but it won't help anyone heal.

This small book inspired me to explore my own feelings, feel the pain but also know that THIS pain would help me heal and to deal with my past, to understand it and to recover from it. It's an often misused word, but I would consider this book to be the most "empowering" of any that I have yet to read on childhood sexual abuse.

May every abuse survivor find their own true voice.


I call my shortest poem, "Growing Up":

In many ways, I grew up too fast,
In some ways, I never grew up at all.
I want to grow old on MY terms.