Review: 'King Kong Theory' by Virginie Despentes, trans. by Frank Wynne
Pub. Date: 11/05/2021
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
I write from the realms of the ugly, for the ugly, the old, the bull dykes, the frigid, the unfucked, the unfuckable, the hysterics, the freaks, all those excluded from the great meat market of female flesh. And if I’m starting here it’s because I want to be crystal clear: I’m not here to make excuses, I’m not here to bitch. I wouldn’t swap places with anyone because being Virginie Despentes seems to me a more interesting gig than anything else out there.
Powerful, provocative, and personal, King Kong Theory is a candid account of how the author of Baise-Moi and Vernon Subutex came to be Virginie Despentes. Drawing from personal experience, Despentes shatters received ideas about rape and prostitution, and explodes common attitudes about sex and gender.
An autobiography, a call for revolt, a manifesto for a new punk feminism, King Kong Theory is Despentes’s most beloved and reviled work, and is here made available again in a brilliant new translation by Frank Wynne.
Feminism has been around for a good little bit now and I feel that during my own lifetime it very much hit the mainstream. Somewhere in the early 2010s it was highly lucrative to use the label "feminist" to sell anything, be it tote bags, make-up, books, clothes, anything commercial basically. In becoming lucrative, I think Feminism as a political movement lost some of its teeth. Not, crucially, among those who had always engaged with it as a political movement, something to organise around and use to address societal issues. But for many, Feminism became a catchphrase that meant both everything and nothing. Nowadays, it can be blamed for everything and anything as well, while being used as an excuse so as not to criticise society. It is now anti-feminist, to some, to be concerned about the rise of trad-wife/soft girl/girl math-content online. We now have to censor when we talk about sex work or rape online, either to avoid getting shadow-banned or to not upset anyone watching. While I appreciate not wanting to upset people, some things need to be talked about directly, honestly, and even harshly and sometimes getting upset is actually necessary. With all of that brewing in my mind, I found it incredibly refreshing to read Virginie Despentes' King Kong Theory. First published in 2006, it is an incredibly open and honest, sometimes aggressive sometimes contemplative, collection of essays about womanhood, being undesirable, rape, pornography, media, masculinity, and more. Even though I've read quite a bit of Feminist theory and writing, I still had to get used to the directness with which Despentes addresses these issues but I did absolutely revel in it, even if I don't necessarily agree with her on all fronts.
King Kong Theory contains seven essays or chapters. The firs, 'Bad Lieutenants', is almost like a Foreword and contains the quote from the blurb above. It is something of a rallying cry to resists the social pressure to shape your life around being desirable to men, to insist on your own physicality and interests over those imagined by the patriarchy and media. 'Who's Taking it Up the Arse, You or Me?' discusses some of the conflicting aspects of different waves of feminism, especially how this leads to complicated impulses for women themselves. A sentence that really stood out to me here was "It is the idea that our independence is destructive that has penetrated to the marrow of our bones". 'You Can't Rape a Woman Who's a Total Slut' is perhaps the most confronting chapter, as Despentes discusses her own experience of gang-rape alongside a friend when she was 17. While she initially compartmentalised the experience until she read an interview with Camille Paglia and begins more actively thinking and talking about it. It is not an easy read, especially if you have experience with sexual assault, but I think it is incredibly important that Despentes is so open and confrontational with her experience and language. In 'Sleeping with the Enemy' she discusses her experience with sex work, how it was liberating for her to a certain extent and had her reconsider certain stereotypes. She here also discusses marriage, legal wrangling that punishes sex workers rather than their clients, and the Madonna-Whore dichotomy. 'Porn Witches', as the name somewhat suggests, is about pornography and how the industry has changed, but also how deeply it is intertwined with class, which I found intriguing. Despentes also discusses her own experience co-directing Baise-Moi with Coralie Thrin Thi. 'King Kong Girl' talks about Peter Jackson's King Kong reboot and the beauty and the beast-myth, while also circling back o Baise-Moi. Favourite quote here, "The monster inside me isn't going to give up". Finally there is 'So Long, Girls', which begins with Antonin Artaud's break-up letter in which he lays out how he wants to be loved, what is expected of a woman. This chapter addresses why men blame feminism when they are failed by the system they helped create. In a way it's an encouragement to men to start thinking about their own liberation.
This might not be a book for everyone and yet I do think everyone, especially those identifying as women, should read it. Virginie Despentes is very much a member of Gen X and very French, but there is value here for readers from all corners. What I loved about King Kong Theory is that while Despentes is often being sly and somewhat joking, she is also consistently enraged and this burns through the novel. I think it is that anger, as well as her seemingly unshakeable belief that her own experiences and thoughts are as valid as anyone else's, if not more so, that I enjoyed most. Despentes' thoughts are deeply inspired by her own experiences and so she sees topics such as rape, pornography, and sex work through her own lens. I don't think that is a bad thing because our debates about these topics profit from using a broad set of perspectives. Her own experiences also encourage her to not see women as intrinsic victims of society, but as people who can experience and survive trauma, who can participate in their own subjugation, and who can learn, grow, and resist. I think that attitude in and of itself is useful and valuable, regardless of whether you agree with Despentes' particular arguments.
I give this book...
5 Universes!
King Kong Theory is undoubtedly provocative, even after all these decades. I found its brutal honesty and directness incredibly refreshing, however, and think 21st-century feminist can profit from some of Despentes' bravery.
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