I read this book in French quite some time ago. I am studying French, but am no near fluent, so I cannot pretend that my opinion is formed with a full understanding of the text, however I do believe I grasped the overall message that the author wanted to transmit, especially in the specific parts I am gonna talk about.

This book is a feminist text mainly in the form of a memoir, specifically of the authors experiences working as a sex worker in France and also her sexual assault. I was prompted to make this post by a review I read on another website when I first finished it, which in my opinion completely misunderstood not only the point but also the importance of this book.

It's important to note that this is not a book based on a study, on statistics or on any kind of "official" research done by an institution. This book is an illustration of the authors opinions and her experiences. The author, Virginie Despentes, has been publishing works related to the female sexuality for decades now, with Kong Kong Théorie being an essay bringing together both her life as a sex worker and as a published author and film director. She does reference several other essays and papers that illustrate her points throughout the book, however if you are expecting a dry cut case study of prostitution and the way it impacts participants this is not what you will find here. This was the complaint of the aforementioned review I read, which was very frustrating, especially because the author of the review clearly was opposed to sex work and I guess read the book expecting a former sex worker to just wallow in self pity.

The desire for everything to be a statistic, peer reviewed and approved is so counter productive to me. I found this book to be a real thought provoker because it showed someones real life experience with sex work, unfiltered and matter of fact. All of this numbers and graphs only dehumanize the actual people involved in sex work. I think it is important to listen to the thoughts of the workers and treat them seriously, just like it is already done with people working in more "socially acceptable" positions.

One point made in the book stood out to me, and that was the fact that people view sex workers with pity and shame. The author recounts how even her clients were sad and ashamed of having paid for sex. Prostitution is often presented to us as a last resort, something that no one must want to do willingly, a sentiment which can be found as well in people that consider themselves as supportive of sex workers. This is only detrimental to actual sex workers and undermines the effort for acceptance of sex work as real work.

King Kong Théorie is book that does not skirt around when it comes to controversial topics. The opinions of the author are expressed without any kind of hesitation and the nature of the subjects discussed are bound to make readers uncomfortable at certain points. Because of this, I find it obvious that people will disagree with certain points made in the book and I am sure that other sex workers and sexual assault survivors might have completely different views, however its value is not in relatability. It is not sanitized educational book, it is a raw callout of our internalized prejudice, and it is up to us as readers to manage the challenge this brings to our worldview.