Sex Object review – Jessica Valenti shares a story women know all too well

One of the country’s best-known feminists reflects on the lasting effects of street harassment in a memoir that serves as a call for change

It’s almost summertime, which means that it’s also time once again for many women and girls, particularly in big cities, to craft their journeys to work or school into tactical missions, planning out routes and schedules in order to avoid the hisses, grunts and catcalls that seem to multiply exponentially whenever women and girls dare to walk down the street in sundresses, shorts and halter tops.

Street harassment is never out of season, of course, and is not restricted to any particular country; a recent survey by ActionAidUK found that three out of four women in the UK, India, Thailand and Brazil have experienced some form of street harassment. And Sex Object, the new memoir from the author and Feministing founder Jessica Valenti, who is also a Guardian US columnist, is a testament to how what’s often brushed aside as “flattering” or “a miscommunication” or simply “boorishness” shapes the psyches of the women on the receiving end of such behavior.

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