Improper Advances

Why do men rape women? This is a question for which there are many political, psychological, and sociological answers, but few historical ones. "Improper Advances" is a book exploring the history of sexual violence in a particular country. A study of women, men, and sexual crime in rural and Northern Ontario, it expands the terms of debates about sexuality and sexual violence. Karen Dubinsky relies on criminal case files, a revealing but largely untapped source for social historians, to retell individual stories of sexual danger - crimes such as rape, abortion, seduction, murder, and infanticide. Although her research supports many feminist analyses of sexual violence, Dubinsky differs from most feminist scholars by refusing to view women solely as victims and sex as a tool of oppression.