What Is a Sexist Ideology? Or: Why Grace Didn’t Leave

Abstract

This paper brings forward two claims. First, sexual violence is a social practice within a broader framework of sexist ideology. And, second, such an ideology is necessarily holistic and self-operative. I spell out the first claim with the help of Sally Haslanger's current research on social structures and ideologies. However, in order to show that a recent case of sexual violence is part of a broader sexist framework, I argue that we need to draw upon further research that focuses on the holistic and self-operative character of said ideologies. Additionally, I develop two insights that follow from understanding sexual violence as a social practice within a sexist ideology. If the sexist ideology constrains our actions and the intelligibility of our actions, then (a) the concept of consent becomes problematic in light of the sexist ideology, and (b) we should think about educational strategies to counter the sexist ideology, and not imprisonment. 1. In the following, I use the term 'sexual violence' to refer to sexual and sexualized acts that are either obtained through the means of power or for the end of power, e.g., acts such as rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, sex obtained through psychological pressure, etc.

"Next Time" Means "No": Sexual Consent and the Structure of Refusals

“…The situational-coercion camp agrees with the antifragility camp that adults of different genders are in principle capable of consensual sex but insists that in some situations, sexist ideologies enable men to be sexually violent to women even in the absence of intentional coercion or direct use of force (Hänel 2018;Filipovic 2018). A major point of disagreement between the camps is thus whether and to what degree situational power differentials like those present in the Ansari case should be viewed as meaningful constraints to women's autonomy.…”

“…Someone in Ansari's position, on this model, may have genuinely been incapable of registering them as the refusals that they were intended to be. 22 Thus, accounts of sexist ideologies such as those advanced in Hänel (2018) and in Gavey (2019) could work in tandem with the unheeded-refusal model to explain cases where women's refusals are unheeded by men. 23 A third model, which this paper won't delve into, we might call the token-refusal model.…”

“…7 For example, in "What is a Sexist Ideology? Or: Why Grace Didn't Leave," Hilkje Charlotte Hänel (2018) argues that sexist ideology structures sexual negotiations between men and women in ways that make women vulnerable to sexual violence even from men who do not intend to violate their boundaries, and even in situations that they could theoretically disengage from. On Hänel's analysis, the resources Ansari possessed that night-that is, "[his] physical strength (even if he makes no use of it), the location of his apartment, his persistence, the distinct gender roles of Ansari and Grace, and so on"-along with sexist schemas, such as the idea that women are givers and men are takers (2018, 906;citing Manne 2018, 22), that men are sexually dominant while women are sexually submissive (2018, 906;citing MacKinnon 1987citing MacKinnon , 1989, and the rape myth that men are sexually entitled to women's bodies (2018, 906), help to explain both 6 See also Worthington (2020) for an analysis of the top comments on Weiss (2018), indicating that the majority wrote in support of what I am calling the antifragility line of argument.…”

#MeToo and testimonial injustice: An investigation of moral and conceptual knowledge

“…Last but not least, politically, we fail to be in solidarity with some persons who are in need of and deserve our solidarity. To make my claims and tackle these problems, I assume, what I call elsewhere (Hönel 2018a; 2018b), the background of a sexist ideology to our lived experiences. Besides many obvious examples of said ideology – recently brought forward in a brave book on misogyny by Kate Manne (2018) – we can see the existence of said ideology by the sheer number of women and others who came forward with reports of sexual violence under the #MeToo-hashtag.…”

Who’s to Blame? Hermeneutical Misfire, Forward-Looking Responsibility, and Collective Accountability

“…Many feminist philosophers argue that rape and sexual violence are elements of a broader sexist ideological framework (cf. Frye 1983Frye , 1992MacKinnon 1987MacKinnon , 1989Hänel 2018aHänel , 2018bManne 2018;Alcoff 2018). While these scholars differ in their theories, they all subscribe to the idea that a sexist, patriarchal, or male supremacist social structure underlies our everyday practices.…”