1. When Janey confronts her friend Veronica about her initial reaction to her assault, Veronica says “You have to understand, it was very awkward for everybody”. She says this in a raised voice, clearly getting defensive. Considering what we are reading and have read in Down Girl, how can we interpret this statement and this behavior?
2. After the assault, Janey’s friends give Matthew the benefit of the doubt although they describe him as “drunk”, “out of control”, “doing inappropriate things”, and “a little sleezy”. Janey says they let him off the hook because “he made them experience the world in different ways — he was the life of the party. Do we buy into this, or are there other factors at work here?
3. On page 199, Manne asserts that “the idea of rapists as monsters exonerates by caricature”. Let’s discuss this claim.
Shared by: Emma McCauley