A Memoir of Unwanted Attention
by Donna Freitas
narrated by Kathleen McInerney
Published: 2019
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Memoir, Feminism
Hardback: 336
Rating: 5
Goodreads | Website
First sentence(s):
The package sat unopened on the coffee table.
In this "compelling and disturbing" true story (Rebecca Traister), a young woman's toxic mentor develops a dark, stalking obsession that disrupts her career -- and her peace of mind. Donna Freitas has lived two lives. In one life, she is a well-published author and respected scholar who has traveled around the country speaking about Title IX, consent, religion, and sex on college campuses. In the other, she is a victim, a woman who suffered and suffers still because she was stalked by her graduate professor for more than two years.
As a doctoral candidate, Freitas loved asking big questions, challenging established theories and sinking her teeth into sacred texts. She felt at home in the library, and safe in the book-lined offices of scholars whom she admired. But during her first year, one particular scholar became obsessed with Freitas' academic enthusiasm. He filled her student mailbox with letters and articles. He lurked on the sidewalk outside her apartment. He called daily and left nagging voicemails. He befriended her mother, and made himself comfortable in her family's home. He wouldn't go away. While his attraction was not overtly sexual, it was undeniably inappropriate, and most importantly--unwanted.
In Consent: A Memoir of Unwanted Attention, Donna Freitas delivers a forensic examination of the years she spent stalked by her professor, and uses her nightmarish experience to examine the ways in which we stigmatize, debate, and attempt to understand consent today.
My two-bits:
This memoir of unwanted attention was tough to listen to. The gradual and persistent creepy stalker actions and how things played out kept this story full of uncomfortable tension and anxiety. But necessary to see. The guy was relentless. He was a living nightmare for the author.
Got me thinking of the enablers and how they were complicit.
* listened to the audio version
* part of October monthly theme: True Crime, Hunger, Horror, Harassment
