Rape has been a phenomenon experienced throughout history and redefined through centuries (Webster). Rape is currently defined as “unlawful sexual activity and usually, sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against a person’s will or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent because of mental illness, mental deficiency, intoxication, unconsciousness, or deception” .The work of rape, written by Rana M. Jaleel in October 2021, shows a great representation of the process of “understanding rape and sexualized violence- as well as their primary components, namely consent, force and coercion” that have been a product of history. The Work of Rape examines “how rape has historically functioned as a technology of racial terror enabled by law and the state, women of color feminism and queer scholarship have only sporadically engaged the role of the US race making and empire”. In other words, Dr. Jaleel writes about the redefinition of sexual violence through international law by examining mass rape in areas such as Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Guatemala, and Peru.

Dr. Jaleel is an associate professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s studies at the University of California Davis. She has a Ph.D. in American studies from New York University, a JD from Yale Law school, and an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan. The Work of rape received the Author of Color’s first book award from Duke University Press. Dr. Jaleel is “Chair of the Cultural Studies Graduate Group, Chair of the Designated Emphasis in Feminist theory and research, Faculty Advisor for the Sexuality studies Minor, and the co-director of HATCH: the feminist Arts & sciences initiative”(Snow).

REVISE The work of Rape starts of in the introduction, where this book asks” what is uplifted, occluded or viciously suppressed within the very definition of rape so that sexualized violence might be recognized”(4). ADD SIGNPOSTS THROUGHOUT THIS PARAGRPHDr. Jaleel explains how The work of Rape “demonstrates the wide ranging importance of rape within contemporary sociolegal understandings of power transnational”(4). Dr. Jaleel goes more in depth about the several meanings to what rape is, and has been defined by global feminists. This brings awarness to bigger questions “How do we enter into our imaginaries of sex-how we determine, how we know, what sex is and what bad or violent sex might be? How do we approach the long, diverse histories of indigenous women, women of color, Third World feminisms and queer/trans responses to rape and other forms of sexualized violence”(6). While these questions aren’t answered in the introduction, Dr. Jaleel makes sure to restate them later on in her book.

In chapter one Dr. Jaleel discusses the rape epidemic seen in Africa, emphasizing the impacts happening during the Cold war era in Yugoslavia and Rwanda.HOW ARE THE CONTINENTS AND COUNTRIES MENTIONED ABOVE RELATED ACCORDING TO THE AUTHOR? HOW DOES SHE APPROACH THE DIFFERENT SITES? She introduces the history of Yugoslavia and explores “how The divisive, transnationally mobile feminist theorizations and dialogues surroiding mass rape,war rape and genocidal rape enabled conflict in the former Yugoslavia and, later, Rwanda”; NEW SENTENCE. ALSO GIVE THE ANSWER AUTHOR GIVES TO THE HOW ABOVE while doing this Jaleel highlights some elite?POWERFUL feminist WRITING? inFROM? the 1990s. In chapter two Dr. Jaleel explores mass rape in Guatemala, peru and Argentina during the civil wars . Jaleel explains how “legal feministS? portrayed sexualized violence in Latin America either as proof of the general pervasiveness of wartime sexualized violence, or a domestic violence or intimate terror which they subsequently named torture”(89).

Dr. Jaleel presents a view on rape that I have yet seen before. She includes various examples from several countries in order to present a further argument. For example, Dr.Jaleel explores rape in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, where “racialization is an ongoing process that produces the war-raped as a population internationally managed and governed”(51). This chapter suggests different approaches on what is now the global mandate to end rape and sexualized violence. FOR EXAMPLE.. Moreover, Jaleel introducesCONNECTS? the radical feminists seen during the forged antiwar movement seen by Chicanos, Asian American, Native Americans and Black liberations.AND DRAWS WHAT CONCLUSION? Dr. Jaleel establishes several terms such as “settler sexual contract” to describe how racialized sexualized violence comes to bear on state sovereignty through human rights guarantees of international law (106).

In chapter three, the MCA is introduced EXPLAIN ACRONYM, as it repurposed international law to codified definitions of torture, rape, and sexual violence. Jaleel argues how the theorization of rape and other sexualized violence creates a different between the individual and teh population. The last chapter, four, explains in campus “entanglement of animality and sexuality” through a series of scenes(142). Jaleel explains how the stories mentioned are in order to underlie lines of force that animate different subjective sexual claims. Through this chapter Jaleel considers the relationship between campus sexual securitization initiatives and tribal nations jurisdictional struggles with the federal government. Dr. Jaleel concludes the book by promoting activism and protest that can ultimately bring everyone together. GIVE EXAMPLE

Although Dr. Jaleel’s work well presents the ongoing issues with mass rape, and the representation through history, i found that the text was very hard to read. This text uses a lot of big words or complex vocabulary, very similar to that of Michel Foucault’s books. Although this can be seen throughout the whole text, I found it the most prominent in the introduction of the book. This can discourage readers from analyzing the text, as the words can make it hard to understand, or even keep up with the book. In addition, the text does not well introduce books/articles that are presented to support Dr. Jaleel’s argument. The lack of introducing information about mentioned articles can negatively affect readers who get lost during the reading, just like I did.
Finally, The Work of Rape has evolved into a book that questions and redefines rape. Dr. Jaleel “argues that the redefinition of sexual violence within international law as war crime, crime against humanity, and genocide owes a disturbing and unacknowledged debt to power and knowledge achieved from racial, imperial, and settler colonial domination,” as demonstrated by a number of examples across the countries. It is critical that people read this book at least once because it explains mass rape in a way that no one else has.

Works Cited

Jaleel, Rana M. The Work of Rape. Duke University Press, 2021. 

Snow, Hunter Kyle. “Rana Jaleel.” Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, Ucdavis, 19 Sept. 2022, https://gsws.ucdavis.edu/people/rana-jaleel. 

“Rape Definition & Meaning.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rape.