Stephanie Larson Publishes New Book on the Rhetoric of Rape and Sexual Assault

Assistant Professor of English Stephanie Larson’s new book, What It Feels Like: Visceral Rhetorics and the Politics of Rape Culture, interrogates how society communicates about rape and sexual assault. Using affective and feminist materialist approaches to rhetorical criticism, Larson examines how discourses surrounding rape and sexual assault rely on strategies of containment, denying the felt experiences of victims and ultimately stalling broader claims for justice. “I’m really interested in how we talk about sexual violence and the types of logics that control that discourse in ways that foreclose opportunities to understand peoples’ individual experiences with rape and sexual assault,” Larson explains.

Larson has been deeply invested in the cultural problems addressed in her book since a young age: 

“I went to the University of Illinois as an undergraduate, and like many universities in the US today, there was a lot of messaging around rape culture and sexual violence. It certainly pinpointed the ‘woman’ as the one who should be fearful of or responsible for what might otherwise happen. And of course, that was followed up by lots of questions that victims are often interrogated with, like were you drinking, where did this take place, how did you retaliate. I was really just kind of existing, like many of us, in a sort of discourse that was troubling for lots of reasons, though I didn’t yet have a vocabulary to try and understand why.”  

While attending the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a graduate student, Larson’s professor Sara McKinnon, who also served as a mentor to her, gave her invaluable advice: research what bothers you. This led Larson to investigate the rhetoric surrounding rape and sexual assault, which was a “huge turning point” for Larson in her research interests. 

With critical social movements such as Me Too and Time’s Up gaining traction, Larson explained how writing during this particular moment was both amazing and overwhelming. “I was…writing at a time when people were taking this problem somewhat seriously. People were attempting to talk about it in really profound and unique ways. Of course, I don’t think we’ve resolved the problem, even though I think we’ve given it more attention.”

In reflecting upon the goals for the book, Larson explained: “I hope that this book, in some ways, helps our community care about this problem. One of the arguments I make in the book is that the law hasn’t worked, it doesn’t work. As grateful as I am that convictions like those of Larry Nassar and Harvey Weinstein have taken place, and they have been held accountable in the eyes of the law, I think it’s easy to cite that as progress and overlook wide swaths of the population who are experiencing sexual assault and rape; and those cases will never make it to trial. Part of what I try to focus on in the book is the mundane and the everyday. I hope that this book can inspire folks to pay attention in ways that they maybe haven’t before.”