Without Consent

A Landmark Trial and the Decades-Long Struggle to Make Spousal Rape a Crime

By: Sarah Weinman

Narrated by: Sarah Weinman

From Sarah Weinman, author of Scoundrel and The Real Lolita, comes an eye-opening story about the first major spousal rape trial in America and urgent questions it raised about women’s rights that would reverberate for decades.

In 1978, Greta Rideout was the first woman in United States history to accuse her husband of rape, at a time when the idea of “marital rape” seemed ludicrous to many Americans and was a crime in only four states. After a quick and conservative trial acquitted John Rideout and a defense lawyer lambasted that “maybe rape is the risk of being married,” Greta was ridiculed and scorned from public life, while John went on to be a repeat offender. Thrust into the national spotlight, Greta and her story would become a national sensation, a symbol of a country’s unrelenting and targeted hate toward women and a court system designed to fail them at every turn.

A now little-remembered trial deserving of close, wide, and lasting attention, Sarah Weinman turns her signature intelligence and journalistic rigor to the enduring impact of this case. Oregon v. Rideout directly inspired feminist activists, who fought state by state for marital rape laws, a battle that was not won in all fifty until as recently as 1993. Mixing archival research and new reporting involving Greta, those who successfully pressed charges against John in later years, as well as the activists battling the courts in parallel, Without Consent embodies vociferous debates about gender, sexuality, and power, while highlighting the damaging and inherent misogyny of American culture then and still now.

Very Important Book

I am really grateful to Sarah Weinman for researching and writing this book. The issue of spousal rape is nothing short of insidious. People need to be educated that this is not ok and there there are consequences should this crime be reported. Unfortunately most people do not report spousal rape resulting in great personal cost. Greta Rideout was an incredibly brave woman who reported her low life husband to no avail, yet she did start the ball rolling that eventually led to this man’s imprisonment after thirty some odd years and many other abused women, two of whom were relentless in their fight against him. Such brave and admirable women! The book was well researched and well written. Thank you so much!

This narrator is awful

The narrator sounding like AI really ruined this book for me..

The story is fascinating but this narrator was not the right choice