King Kong Theory Paperback – April 1, 2010

King Kong Theory is a great book. I'm not usually a fan of things that bank on shock factor for impact (i.e., her "Rape Me" shenanigans), but this one is insightful and radical and challenging and yet earnest and true. Encourages diversity of thought and insightful exploration of another person's point of view. There are some things in there that will hit you hard if you let them.

Defiant, raw, powerful, insightful. A calling of women to the depths of innermost strength and independence. An exploration of identity and resilience.

I love this book. Despentes' honesty and insight are amazing. Recommended for gender-studies students and for anyone interested in thinking deeper about the human experience.

Despentes' thoughts about women's lives are the kind hardly ever heard in either the general media or common discourse, even though her experiences are ones many women will share. This says much more about how our media and discourse is seriously lacking in promoting women's perspectives than because her commentary is revolutionary. For some, this collection of essays may be revealing and inspiring in making them re-evaluate their place in the world or thoughts about other women. The book is a quick read and doesn't pad the discussion.As a book, however, there is not a great deal to it. It struck me that these chapters would make a great collection of online essays as it is not a particularly cohesive work. I rather wish that these discussions could, in fact, be found online so as to inspire more commentary on the ideas raised in it.

Witty

I implore the Feminist Press to reissue this book and make it available as an ebook as well. A passionate cri de coeur that is as brilliant an example of autotheory as anything written by Maggie Nelson or Chris Kraus (whom I also love), it demonstrates that nothing has changed for all the years of feminist activism from suffrage to #MeToo. Don't we all know that only the privileged are heard (and only for a short while) if not believed and that the 99% of women will continue to be treated basely, ignored, dismissed, ridiculed, raped, and worse? Is it any wonder that most of the world's women put on femininity like a hated dress so they can exist in this life in the WalMarts and their like, the only places where they can find employment? Service with a seductive smile that conceals a universe of interior violence. We can only admire the bravery of the few who can tell their truth. Try to do the same. And hope that the very immune strength that has helped us survive at all will one day result in a world where we collectively stand, if not entirely alone, a vast majority.

King Kong Theory is arguably one of the most insightful books I've read about gender dynamics to date. A memoir of Despentes' own life events and observations, King Kong Theory reveals how exactly she came to develop her feminist philosophy. Despentes' writing is raw, full of rage, and uninhibited, and King Kong Theory is a must-read for anyone desirous of freedom from patriarchal control.

King Kong Theory is Despentes' candid account of how she became notorious: reviled and admired in equal measure for her rape-revenge novel turned film, Baise-Moi, she is the poster girl for modern female rebellion. Powerful, provocative and personal, King Kong Theory describes the ways her ideas have been shaped by her experiences of rape, prostitution and working in the porn industry.Feminist theory sheds its fusty image and takes on a punk mentality as Despentes claims that sisterhood explodes our belief in feminine perfection and creates a space for all those who can't or won't obey the rules. Woolf and de Beauvoir are revived and updated by the loudest, most fiercely unapologetic misfit writing in France today.