Rocking the Cradle of Sexual Politics Pb [Paperback]

Louise Armstrong (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 29, 1996

Gives powerful voice to the unspoken concerns of thousands, about how the issue of incest has been manipulated and distorted in a blaze of media attention and sensationalism and the danger this poses for women and children.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Herself an incest survivor, Armstrong was one of the first to bring this previously invisible problem to national attention with her 1978 book, Kiss Daddy Goodnight. Here, she traces the history of public response to the "outing" of incest over the past 15 years. Asserting that incest is fundamentally a political issue-a result of deep-rooted social traditions of male privilege-and must be combatted as such, the author notes that it has instead been interpreted largely as a personal, intrafamilial problem. Thus, it has been treated primarily through therapy and counseling, which, she claims, are inadequate responses. She also describes the public's attempts to deny the pervasiveness of incest, citing, for instance, the recent buzz about the so-called false-memory syndrome, whose proponents argue that many "memories" of incest are actually planted in patients' heads by psychologists. She also details how many victims who seek legal recourse are stonewalled by the court system. Such responses, she asserts, both silence incest victims and further empower its perpetrators. Her harrowing accounts of how incest has been dealt with in the courtroom will enrage readers.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Armstrong, the self-professed "first walking, talking incest victim" of 1978, has written a stunning indictment of the entire victim/self-help/therapy movement. She explains how the intense media coverage of the whole gamut of abuse stories has trivialized the issue. Armstrong gives a detailed history, beginning back in the 1970s when incest was never mentioned, much less confronted, moving on to the impact of the made-for-television movie Something About Amelia, and concluding with the eventual reduction of the real abuse issue to mere grist for the talk show mill. Armstrong writes: "When did I first hear the knob click, advancing us from 'dread taboo' to 'decriminalization'... to 'medicalization'-in fact to industrialization? At my first convention, probably." While the writing is very personal and heavy with irony, Armstrong's work is also well referenced. Her book should become a staple of women's studies programs. In a time when U.S. News and World Report writes that Marion Barry "turned the infrastructure of therapy into a political tool" (September 26, 1994), Armstrong's work deserves dissemination in public libraries.
Nina Wikstrom Aguilar, Harris Computer Systems, Melbourne, Fla.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: The Women's Press (February 29, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0704344602
• ISBN-13: 978-0704344600
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,317,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best social analysis I have ever read., July 28, 2000

By 

Cathleen M. Walker "geminiwalker" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Rocking the Cradle of Sexual Politics: What Happened When Women Said Incest (Hardcover)

Rocking the Cradle of Sexual Politics is the best social analysis of incest and child sexual abuse that I have ever read. The first woman to publicly acknowledge her status as a survivor in the USA (on the Phil Donahue show), Louise now looks back to see how far we have come since then: from the shocked response of the television audience to a growing profit-making industry in "healing" the survivor. The politics, says Louise, has fallen by the wayside. Exploiting the nightmare that is incest by claiming to "heal" the wounds, we seem to be forgetting that there is a problem out there, a major one, one that keeps all of our children at risk, one that is growing larger every day. The more we deny the validity of incest, the more we condone the status quo of a society that nourishes and thrives on the vulnerability of children and the naivete of those charged with their care and protection. The State is not the answer...in more instances than not, it is part of the problem. It is only, however, by acknowledging that there *is* a problem that a workable solution can be found. This solution will not be simple, easy, or quick...and it will expose powerful people who do not want to be exposed, people who benefit from the power and control of exploiting those who are vulnerable and powerless. That is the politics of the situation: the politics of power. Children are only powerless as long as we continue to focus on our "careers" as 'healers' rather than in our ability to empower them as advocates. Louise Armstrong strongly suggests we have lost our focus. As one survivor who has met hundreds of others in my own healing journey, I strongly agree.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you Louise Armstrong, September 13, 2000

By 

Iris Gudmundsdottir (Denmark/An Icelandic citizen) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rocking the Cradle of Sexual Politics: What Happened When Women Said Incest (Hardcover)

The author of this book, Louise Armstrong, is a woman of courage and unafraid of speaking her mind, despite the very delicate subject on child sexual abuse. In her book, she portrays child sexual abuse as being a problem that the male dominated society manipulates and maintains with almost every means available. The view that through time, women have been held responsible for the sexual abnormalities of a certain percentage of the male sex, is strongly stressed throughout the book. Mothers are encouraged to act, when their children disclose sexual abuse by their fathers and when they indeed act, the legal system reacts by holding the mothers responsible for the abuse, not the criminal fathers, based on the courts' findings they have not been able to "prevent" their husbands from sexually abusing their children: "And so the mother sued the doctors and laywers who did nothing to help. She said that "even when a medical examination found evidence of sexual abuse after a weekend visit with the father in February 1981, her complaints were ignored, and she was subsequently found in contempt of court because she refused to allow the father to visit the child". Either she would allow the father to take the child for a weekend visit or she would go to jail" (p.121)! We are caught in a learned helplessness situation and Louise Armstrong inspires us to do something about it, not to give up the fight! One of the most inspiring books I will ever read!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and distrubing, March 2, 1998

By 

BooksByCategory.com (World Wide Web) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rocking the Cradle of Sexual Politics: What Happened When Women Said Incest (Hardcover)

This is an excellent look back at where incest has been and its legal and social status in the US now. It is an unsettling looking at how incest has been allowed in our society by the legal system past and present, but also a look at how our society focuses on the `victim/survivor' not on the perpetrator.

The conclusion Armstrong makes is one most men do not like: men have the power over women and misuse it.