Contesting the Dominant Discourse of Child Sexual Abuse: Sexual Subjects, Agency, and Ethics

Abstract

Responding to previous scholars' call to explore the complexities of child sexual abuse (CSA), this article presents narratives of CSA and scrutinizes a binary construction underpinning this discourse of CSA, namely, the positioning of children as powerless and adults as powerful. The narratives belong to three Indonesian young people who have had sexual interactions with adults when they were children. The findings demonstrate how this binary positioning has been both drawn upon and resisted in the ways participants understand their sexual experiences. This article contributes to the existing literature by providing analyses of some vignettes of everyday experiences of how children might be constituted as sexual subjects, including their capability to exercise agency, perform resistance, and negotiate ethics. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to how the recognition of children as sexual subjects and their sexual agency might be beneficial for parents, educators, and counselors.

Co-constructing women’s stories about the sexual effects of child sexual abuse: A relational constructionist approach.

“…A frequent question towards sexually victimized women is “why didn’t you report it sooner?” Luisa’s narrative, framed as a comedy-novel, can help us answer the question, showing that it is not just about making decisions in a moment. Talking of sexual violence means that people can be in the negotiation of meanings (Wijaya, 2018). Regressive and progressive narratives in combination could give us insight into those negotiation processes.…”

“…In our research conversations, we talked about the sexual violence they experienced and the ways in which they responded (White, 2004). This is a theoretical/political stance on women's agency (Small, 2019;Wijaya, 2018;Woodiwiss, 2014Woodiwiss, , 2018. Here, we wanted to pointed out women's ability to respond to the exercise of power, violence, and silence within institutions such as the family or the school.…”

“…Despite these figures, women are questioned when they do not appear to be “sufficiently damaged”, what others have labeled as “the good victim” (Sanyal, 2019; Woodiwiss, 2018). This situation has contributed to a “harm story” (O’Dell, 2003) of child sexual abuse that usually ignores local contexts around sexual abuse and women’s agency to respond to its consequences (Small, 2019; Wijaya, 2018), especially the sexual effects (Guyon et al, 2021). Here, we address this issue by conducting narrative research from a relational constructionist approach (McNamee & Hosking, 2012).…”

“…None of these fundamental dynamics are questioned or reflected by harm story (Woodiwiss, 2014(Woodiwiss, , 2018. Finally, women's agency to respond to child sexual abuse has no relevance within this story (Katz & Nicolet, 2022;Small, 2019;Wijaya, 2018).…”

Scientia sexualis and ars erotica: Indonesian young people resisting the discourse of sexual desire

“…Three participants -Bianda, Heni, and Putri (pseudonyms)were chosen because of their specific engagement with this discourse in the constitution of their sexual subjectivitiy. Other dominant discourses identified within the data (e.g., from the other 19 participants) were examined in separate publications (Wijaya Mulya, 2018a;2018b;2019).…”