Title: Black Box
Author: Shiori Ito
Release: Out now
I remember, vaguely, hearing about Ito on the BBC news (I
think it was the BBC), but I cannot say that I followed her story closely. But when the TLS had a review of this book, I
remembered the news report and brought the book. It’s important for women, white women in particular,
to realize that feminist is and should be intersectional and that not all feminist
is white or European.
Ito’s memoir concerns her rape by a prominent manager
in the Japanese news world and what happens after. It should be noted, and Ito notes this
herself in her introduction, that she does tell details of the rape and it could
be triggering.
Ito’s memoir isn’t about the rape
but more about the aftermath and the struggles she had to go though to get her
case acknowledged. This includes the re-enactment
of the rape itself, where Ito had to go to the police station and have a dummy
positioned on her in the ways she was attacked.
This occurs after the struggle to even get the police to look into the
charge.
Ito’s memoir also covers differences
that were not really reported by most main stream international news outlets. One of these is the use of the legal term
quasi rape (this is the English translation).
The term is used to refer to “taking advantage of” a woman when she is incapacitated
in some way (sleep, drunk etc.). Japanese
law also made it important for the man accused of rape to understand that the
term no was being used. It isn’t whether
she said no, it is whether he understands expression of no.
Western readers might raise an eyebrow
when Ito states that the American system doesn’t have a term like quasi rape. But this would be disregarding the fact that
she is talking about the legal system, not how society can or does see an
individual rape case. It is also important
to note that when Ito goes public it has a totally different impact that
someone in the West going bulk. This
needs to be taken into consideration.
The book is extremely readable and
should be widely read.
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