Amy Remeikas On Reckoning

Amy Remeikis is a political reporter working for Guardian Australia. She is also a regular panelist on Australian TV and perhaps many listeners met her in this capacity recently as she appeared on The Project. Remeikis was appearing to promote her new book On Reckoning and the segment quickly became a prime example of the concept of reckoning that Remeikis explores in her writing.

On Reckoning is part of Hachette’s On series. A collection of bite sized books exploring ideas driving our society.

In On Reckoning Amy Remeikis explores the evolving public narrative around sexual assault and how survivors of sexual assault are treated. In doing so Remeikis looks at how inadequate our current ways of engaging with sexual assault survivors are and how this inadequacy is leading to a ground swell of anger that is changing the story.

Remeikis begins with the moment the Prime Minister responded to allegations that Britany Higgins had been raped in Parliament House. The Prime Minister’s response was contingent on his understanding being conditioned, or perhaps filtered through his relationships as a father and a husband.

Remeikis points out that it is simply wrong that women and their safety should be conditional on men having a significant other in their life who can act as the lens through which violence is first understood and then condemned.

On Reckoning goes on to explore the inadequacy of a public narrative that cites bad men as perpetrators of sexual assault, in a world where we only seem to know ‘good blokes’.

Remeikis points to the statistics of sexual violence and identifies the liklihood that not only do we all know a woman who has been a victim, we also statistically would know a man who has been a perpetrator.

The public narrative would have us believe that bad people commit crimes and are caught and punished but in On Reckoning Remeikis is telling us that this is a story that hasn’t had its third act. The anger and pain of women who have been made victims has continued to rage and a new story was needed; one that dealt with the very real and ongoing threats that women dealt with every day.

On Reckoning is a combination of reporting, commentary and social philosophy and it arrives at a moment that is both immediate and long developing. It succinctly describes the evolving discussion of how we deal with sexually violent men and the world that has allowed them to escape so often unscathed by their crimes.

On Reckoning also highlights for us the failure of our stories; prevailing narratives of the good bloke or the woman who was asking for it, the misunderstanding or the private matter that’s none of our business. It shows us that these stories have allowed crimes to committed as a matter of course and that we can no longer hide behind ignorance and apathy.

On Reckoning by Amy Remeikis is out not through Hachette  

This book review appeared as part of 2ser’s Tuesday Book Club.

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