Roll Red Roll

Rape, Power, and Football in the American Heartland

De: Nancy Schwartzman, Nora Zelevansky

Narrado por: Nancy Schwartzman, Brittany Pressley

An incisive narrative about a teen rape case that divided a Rust Belt town, exposing the hostile and systemic undercurrents that enable sexual violence, and spotlighting ways to make change.

In football-obsessed Steubenville, Ohio, on a summer night in 2012, an incapacitated sixteen-year-old girl was repeatedly assaulted by members of the “Big Red” high school football team. They took turns documenting the crime and sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The victim, Jane Doe, learned the details via social media at a time when teens didn’t yet understand the lasting trail of their digital breadcrumbs. Crime blogger Alexandria Goddard, along with hacker collective Anonymous, exposed the photos, Tweets, and videos, making this the first rape case ever to go viral and catapulting Steubenville onto the national stage.

Filmmaker Nancy Schwartzman spent four years embedded in the town, documenting the case and its reverberations. Ten years after the assault, Roll Red Roll is the culmination of that research, weaving in new interviews and personal reflections to take listeners beyond Steubenville to examine rape culture in everything from sports to teen dynamics.

Roll Red Roll explores the factors that normalize sexual assault in our communities. Through interviews with sportswriter David Zirin, victim’s rights attorney Gloria Allred and more, Schwartzman untangles the societal norms in which we too often sacrifice our daughters to protect our sons.

With the Steubenville case as a flashpoint that helped spark the #MeToo movement, a decade later, Roll Red Roll focuses on the perpetrators and asks, can our society truly change?

©2022 Nancy Schwartzman and Nora Zelevansky (P)2022 Hachette Books

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Nancy Schwartzman has given us the gift of an immersive, gripping narrative that thoughtfully explores the cultural rot behind one of the twenty-first century’s most notorious cases of sexual violence (so far). Roll Red Roll documents not just a shocking episode of violence and its aftermath but a germinal moment in our recent cultural history, one that pointed the way to #MeToo. This is true crime you’ll never have to apologize for loving.”—Kate Harding, author of Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture—And What We Can Do About It

“What Nancy Schwartzman does with Roll Red Roll is not only provide a necessary examination of pressing issues, but a compelling one. This book dives deep into the American political and social landscape to wrestle with issues of power, misogyny, and problems both apparent and disturbingly hidden. By the end, it changes the way you look at the world. It should be widely read and discussed—we'd all be better off for it.”—Jared Yates Sexton, author of American Rule: How A Nation Conquered the World But Failed Its People

“Roll Red Roll reads like a riveting true crime story while the reader is being carefully led through a masterful assessment of the root causes of rape culture….A must-read.”—Dr. Caroline Heldman, Executive Director of The Representation Project, Chair of Critical Theory & Social Justice, Chair of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at Occidental College

much needed introspection for our society

as mentioned in the book, as much as 11 years later not much has really changed. it's disappointing but we shall keep fighting and remain hopeful

amazing

totally enthralling - I was wary because it was described as "true crime", which I don't usually go for, but this was an excellent explanation and analysis for someone who avoided the story at the time. particularly liked the retrospective in the final few chapters.

Couldn't stop reading

The story behind the story was fascinating, disturbing & disgusting but not all together shocking. The way that athletes, especially star athletes in a small town, are protected in our society over everything is honestly heartbreaking. To know what that girl went through & to have so few adults in her corner in that community protect her is a statement on how women are viewed in our country. the entitlement those boys felt to not only her body but her privacy afterwards & then knowing so many were there and no one stood up to do the right thing - not just as a parent but as a human, makes my blood boil.