"It's Only a Penis": Rape, Feminism, and Difference

Helliwell, Christine

doi:10.1086/495482

Cited by 59 publications

(34 citation statements)

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“…She argued that the framing whereby "rape is about sex" OR "rape is about (violent) power and assault" sets up an unavailing binary that reduces rich and nuanced feminist thought, and conceals a host of different ways of understanding these terms and their relationships (See also MacKinnon 1989, 171). Indeed, a brief foray into feminist work on sex, sexuality and sexual violence reveals a wealth of robust theorization that renders this binary problematic (e.g., Freedman and Thorne 1984;Butler 1990Butler , 1999Bell 1991;Helliwell 2000;Cahill 2001;Mardorossian 2002;Bourke 2008;Heberle and Grace 2009). Given the centrality that renditions of this adage play in the accounts of wartime rape that we further discuss below, we loosely follow Bell's line of reasoning in highlighting some crucial insights that remind us that the way we imbue the sexual with meaning is not fixed (although it may appear so in our accounts).…”

Section: A Brief Note On Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Curious erasures: the sexual in wartime sexual violence

Baaz

Stern

2018

International Feminist Journal of Politics

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Wartime sexual violence is especially egregious precisely because it is a sexual form of violence that causes particular harms. Yet, curiously, and in contrast to feminist theory on sexual violence more generally, the sexual has been erased from frames of understanding in dominant accounts of wartime rape. This article places the seeming certainty that "wartime rape is not about sex (it's about power/violence)" under critical scrutiny and poses questions about the stakes of the erasure of the sexual in explanations of conflict-related sexual violence. It argues that the particular urgency that accompanies this erasure reflects the workings of familiar distinctions between war and peace, as well as efforts to clearly recognize violence and separate it from sex. Erasing the sexual from accounts of wartime rape thus ultimately reinscribes the normal and the exceptional as separate, and reproduces a reductive notion of heterosexual masculine sex (in peacetime) that is ontologically different from the violence of war.

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Section: A Brief Note On Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Curious erasures: the sexual in wartime sexual violence

Baaz

Stern

2018

International Feminist Journal of Politics

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“…Since the ground-breaking work by Brownmiller, Against our will (1975), rape became central to feminists' analysis (Griffin, 1971;Russel, 1975Russel, , 1982Marcus, 1992;Fuller, 1995;Smart, 1995;Lees, 1996Lees, , 1997Figueiredo, 1998;Gavey, 1999Gavey, , 2005Bevacqua, 2000;Helliwell, 2000;Mardorossian, 2002Mardorossian, , 2014Watson-Franke, 2002;Bourke, 2007;Toit, 2009) and particularly to feminist jurisprudence (Pateman, 1980;Chamallas, 1988;Mackinnon, 1989Mackinnon, , 2003Mackinnon, , 2016Pineau, 1989;Beleza, 1990Beleza, , 1994Beleza, , 1995Beleza, , 1996Henderson, 1992;Lees, 1996Lees, , 1997Cowan, 2007;Faedi, 2009;Sottomayor, 2011). Feminist scholarship debunked the myth of the "rape by a stranger in a solitary alley" (Burt, 1980;Warshaw, 1988), opposed to marital rape exemption (Russel, 1982;West, 1990), uncovered the intersection of rape with racism (Wriggins, 1983;Harris, 1990), exposed rape culture …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“They never talk about a victim’s feelings: according to criminal law, feelings are not facts”—Portuguese judicial narratives about sex crimes

Ventura

2016

Palgrave Commun

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Sexual violence is a central dimension of what is generally called violence against women. Historically, the law has been one of the structures that has reinforced gender inequality and legitimized male seizure of women's sexuality within and outside marriage: legally, married women had no right to sexual freedom regarding their husbands and, at the same time, non-wed women who pressed charges against white men were accused of lying and faced victim-blaming judicial practices. Since the beginning of the 1990s, Portuguese rape legislation has changed in order to recognize that sex crimes offend someone's right to sexual self-determination. The Criminal Code has abandoned expressions like modesty and decency when referring to sex crimes, and a controversial mitigating penalty norm based on a victim's provocative behaviour or on the relation between the accused and the plaintiff was repealed in 1995. In addition, criminal law has evolved to a gender-neutral formulation and expanded the definition of rape adopting the "all penetration" formula. Nevertheless, the discourses of Portuguese jurisprudence and doctrine reveal stereotyped images about rape victims' behaviour and biased evaluations against women. Therefore, the 'law in books' must be analysed in its relation with 'law in action', which is unescapably influenced by doctrine and by magistrates' individual beliefs. This paper aims to capture judicial representations of rape, rape victims and offenders. Qualitative data are used based on 20 semi-structured interviews with 18 judges and prosecutors and two attorneys. The interviews were analysed through critical discourse analysis using a feminist approach. This article is published as part of a collection on gender studies.

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“…Reminding us of the hegemony of a singular conception of freedom and equality in politics, Christine Helliwell (2000) has argued convincingly that the prevalent liberal feminist fear of violence as arising from sexual differences in bodies (which is strikingly similar to the Hobbesian dream that brings forth the conquering sovereign) should not be imposed on societies such as the Gerai of Borneo, who do not dream of sexual difference, nor have nightmares of rape. The more general point is that imagining a people, a way of life or political formation opposed to sovereignty is self-defeating.…”

Section: The Liberty Of Crossing Bordersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, they matter 'politically': those contemporaries who embody the past in the present ('medieval Muslims', 'non-modern societies', 'rogue states' etc.) may be legitimately governed by paternalism/coercion until they are ready to accede to the level achieved by states governed through the freedom Kant requires for private property, security of contract and thus 'peaceful commerce' to flourish everywhere (Helliwell andHindess 2011, 2015).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-level Governance as Political Theory

Kerr¹

2017

Multi-Level Governance: Conceptual Challenges and Case Studies From Australia

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"It's Only a Penis": Rape, Feminism, and Difference

Cited by 59 publications

References 0 publications

Curious erasures: the sexual in wartime sexual violence

Curious erasures: the sexual in wartime sexual violence

“They never talk about a victim’s feelings: according to criminal law, feelings are not facts”—Portuguese judicial narratives about sex crimes

Multi-level Governance as Political Theory

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