Publishers Weekly
02/27/2023
In this sharp study, Gilmore (Tainted Women), a professor emerita of English at Ohio State University, examines how the #MeToo movement used narrative “tools to revive a longstanding public conversation about sexual justice.” She contends that sexual assault survivors sharing their stories on social media under the hashtag #MeToo in late 2017 constituted the “gelling of millions of diverse accounts into a collective voice that exposed systemic bias.” The collective nature of the movement was crucial, Gilmore posits, because the sheer number of accounts made it difficult to dismiss sexual abuse as a widespread and systemic problem. Touching on Harriet Jacobs’s 1861 slave narrative, the transformations undergone by rape survivors in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the Senate testimonies of Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford, and Mary Gordon’s 2020 novel, Payback, Gilmore encourages “reading like a survivor,” which entails extending the empathy and “care we feel for literary characters to actual survivors.” The author’s mixture of literary and feminist analysis yields eye-opening insights and provides fresh ways of thinking about the power of survivors’ stories. The result is a thoughtful and thorough consideration of a global movement. (Apr.)
Rebecca Traister
Paying careful attention to gendered, racial, class, and sexual power hierarchies, Gilmore offers a compelling and deeply considered analysis—grounded in literary history and criticism, from Harriet Jacobs to Sophocles—of narrative activism, storytelling in service of social change, tracing its explosive trajectory before, during, and since the 2017 #MeToo peak. This is such a smart book that complicates and enriches an understanding of recent feminist movements and the literary and activist lineage on which they are built.
Sharon Marcus
Gilmore draws on her peerless knowledge of women’s life writing and feminist theory to provide a stunningly original account that situates #MeToo in a long history of feminist narrative activism. This is a searing and ultimately hopeful analysis of how survivor testimony can change the world.
Bonnie Honig
Do ‘ladies lie’? ‘Survivor reading’ and ‘narrative activism’ are Leigh Gilmore’s powerful replies to the age-old charge. She argues for a #MeToo effect that has furthered the healing and justice that courts have all too often failed to give. A readable, rigorous, and compelling book.
Moonglo Texas
I highly recommend reading this book to be challenged, to deepen one’s understanding, and to be inspired to do more. It’s a five out of five on the enJOYment scale.
Sara Ahmed
This book offers a powerful, painful and profound vision of #MeToo as a form of narrative activism . Gilmore asks us to be alert to the ethical and political promise of #MeToo, how it builds on a long lineage of feminist activism and creates alternative pathways for justice. A necessary and vital book.
Salamishah Tillet
The #MeToo Effect is a powerful, persuasive, and truly comprehensive story about the moment when millions of victims of sexual assault came together and used their narrative power to change the world. This is an essential read for anyone interested in understanding how the #MeToo movement was born, its successes, and how it continues to shape our conversations and culture today.
Anita Hill
Leigh Gilmore writes with compelling authority about the sizable contribution that narrative expression makes to our understanding of justice. The #MeToo Effect demonstrates how victims and survivors have exposed the bias in traditional fact-finding processes, emphasizing that diverse trauma sufferers’ public storytelling is a longstanding tradition that pushes society closer to the truth.
