# The Morning After (book)

The Morning After: Sex, Fear and Feminism on Campus, is a nonfiction book authored by Katie Roiphe. First released in 1993, the book discussed date rape and American feminism. Prior to its release, a portion of the book was published as an essay, “The Rape Crisis, or Is Dating Dangerous?” in the New York Times Magazine. In 1994, the book was reprinted with a new introduction along with a shortened title.

## Background

Roiphe’s book recounts various experiences during her undergraduate matriculation at Harvard. She describes attending safe sex group meetings, a lecture by Catharine McKinnon (whom she names the Antiporn Star), along with attending ‘Take Back the Night Marches’ as a spectator. Within the introduction, Roiphe recognizes she is “writing against the grain” and states her book is “devoted to the idea of women taking responsibility for their actions”.

## Genre

The book is categorized as non-fiction. The Morning After focus is feminism, women’s studies and social science.

## Publication

The book was first published on September 1, 1993, as a paperback. The book was re-published on September 7, 1994. The reprint contains a new introduction along with a shortened title.

## Summary

The book is divided into 7 chapters along with acknowledgements, introduction to the paperback edition, introduction, afterword, and notes. Each chapter builds on the next chapter. It is written from the author’s point of view and her experiences during matriculating Harvard University.
According to Roiphe, the “rape crisis feminism” has taken feminism backwards. She describes the feminist of her time as practicing guerilla feminism and instilling fear into students and parents. The fear of being rape along with the fear of contracting a disease (specifically HIV/AIDS) has stifled the young adults. Noting entering into college should be a time of sexual exploration.
Within the book, she expresses the feminism during that time was preoccupied with women as victims along with sexual harassment and rape. She notes questionable statistics that “according to [a] survey, one in four college women is the victim of rape or attempted rape.” $^1$ Roiphe notes multiple universities supported this rhetoric and referenced multiple pamphlets distributed to students. She suggests this way of thinking will have women fearing all men to include friends and professors.
Roiphe has an entire chapter dedicated to “Taking Back the Night”, anti-rape marches. The chapter opens with Roiphe describing a “Take Back the Night” march during the month of April at Harvard University. She recounts various stories of participants sharing their personal accounts of rape. She states over the years the numbers of participants have increased to thousands. Along with noting that half of those present during that march were males.
Additionally, Roiphe has an entire chapter on Catharine Mackinnon, whom she names the “Antiporn star.” She recalls a Mackinnon lecturing at Princeton. Initially, describing Mackinnon as elegant and tall however further into the chapter describes her as a “Puritan preacher” and of “fire and brimstone.” Also, Roiphe recounts the question she asked Mackinnon and notes her argument to be contradictory.

## Reception

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, writing for the New York Times, called The Morning After a “book of the times” and said, “it is courageous of Ms. Roiphe to speak out against the herd ideas that campus life typically encourages.” The Morning After received positive response from the critic Camile Paglia, who called it “an eloquent, thoughtful, finely argued book that was savaged from coast to coast by shallow, dishonest feminist book reviewers.” Additionally Cathy Young described the book in the Washington Post as “clearheaded, wry, disturbing look at the radical feminist obsession with sexual victimization.” Adding, “Katie Roiphe writes from the trenches of gender warfare.”
A criticism of the book is that it promotes victim-blaming. In 1993, a negative review by Katha Pollitt titled “Not Just Bad Sex” was published in The New Yorker. Pollitt’s review was in turn criticized by Christina Hoff Sommers in “Who Stole Feminism?” (1994). Naomi Klein wrote in the Global & Mail that “[Roiphe] employ[s] intellectual dishonesty, rhetorical distortion and cheap tricks” within her book.