Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Jessica Valenti: “Sex Object: A Memoir”
When Jessica Valenti was 12, a man masturbated in front of her on a New York subway station platform. As she tells in her new memoir, it was just the first of many similar episodes...Growing up in New York, her teens were filled with men pushing themselves up against her in crowded subway cars, flashing her, or making suggestive comments.
By Madeleine Brand • • 1 min readWhen Jessica Valenti was 12, a man masturbated in front of her on a New York subway station platform. As she tells in her new memoir, it was just the first of many similar episodes...Growing up in New York, her teens were filled with men pushing themselves up against her in crowded subway cars, flashing her, or making suggestive comments. As a young adult, Valenti started writing about women’s issues and launched the website Feministing. These days she writes a column on gender and politics for the Guardian, U.S...And as a well-known feminist writer and blogger, she continues to attract the attention of men, often in online comments too ugly and offensive to be repeated on the radio. In “Sex Object: A Memoir,” Valenti connects the dots between her childhood experiences and her adult self.
