Her Body, Our Choice
On sale
22nd April 2027
Price: £16.99
‘A true trailblazer, breathtakingly original, and brilliantly argued’ Jay Griffiths, author of How Animals Heal Us
Violence against women. Violence against our planet.
Neither is separate from the other. Neither is inevitable.
We must resist both.
Rachel Donald was sixteen years old when a man pinned her in an alleyway and raped her.
Over a decade later, at a conservation event in Papua New Guinea, she listened as a world leader downplayed the harmful effects of a forthcoming methane gas project in his speech to the local population. The horror of her own experience came rushing back to her and she understood something for the first time: the way humans treat the earth and the way abusers treat women are two different expressions of the same forces. Power. Entitlement. Denial.
That moment set Rachel on a journey through myth, law, literature and science to understand how our violation of Earth creates the conditions for men to violate women. Most importantly, she discovered that rape is far from an inherent human practice. There are societies in which rape does not happen, and they all share a common trait: they treat nature with respect.
Impassioned, exhilarating and visionary, Her Body, Our Choice is a ground-breaking work of feminist thought that shows a path towards healing, both for ourselves and for earth. It is set to inspire a generation of women and activists – and to become a future classic.
Violence against women. Violence against our planet.
Neither is separate from the other. Neither is inevitable.
We must resist both.
Rachel Donald was sixteen years old when a man pinned her in an alleyway and raped her.
Over a decade later, at a conservation event in Papua New Guinea, she listened as a world leader downplayed the harmful effects of a forthcoming methane gas project in his speech to the local population. The horror of her own experience came rushing back to her and she understood something for the first time: the way humans treat the earth and the way abusers treat women are two different expressions of the same forces. Power. Entitlement. Denial.
That moment set Rachel on a journey through myth, law, literature and science to understand how our violation of Earth creates the conditions for men to violate women. Most importantly, she discovered that rape is far from an inherent human practice. There are societies in which rape does not happen, and they all share a common trait: they treat nature with respect.
Impassioned, exhilarating and visionary, Her Body, Our Choice is a ground-breaking work of feminist thought that shows a path towards healing, both for ourselves and for earth. It is set to inspire a generation of women and activists – and to become a future classic.
Reviews
This book lays out with unsparing clarity the violence at the heart of our world, and has the courage to imagine a very different path for people and planet. I am inspired by Rachel Donald's emotional honesty and her radical vision
A true trailblazer, breathtakingly original, and brilliantly argued. I know no book that offers such a necessary and unique analysis of this perilous present