When does the call for ‘speaking out’ against sexual violence begin to silence victim-survivors? Through reflecting on the #MeToo moment, Allison McKibban argues mainstream Western movements against sexual violence are often insidiously laced with colonial violence. She calls on activists and researchers to embrace a self-reflective and decolonial listening to create a truly transformative movement against sexual violence.
Is the family a place of safety or a trap? Ruth Beecher explores the institution of the family and the (lack of) recognition of child sexual abuse within it.
As part of our ‘(Un)Silenced’ series, George Severs argues that the history of male victims of rape and sexual violence should make us all alert to the ways in which gender norms silence male experiences of abuse, and prompt us to hear male survivors who are so often both silent and silenced.
Can medical institutions participate in colonial violence? Allison McKibban argues the involuntary sterilization of tens of thousands of Native American women in the 1970s must be rehistoricised as part of the U.S. government’s broader campaign of genocide.
How does society approach the sexual desires of those with disabilities? Stephanie Wright explores the history of a lack of acknowledgement of vulnerable people’s sexual autonomy , which can result in an increased possibility of harm.
This is the introduction for the (Un)Silenced: Institutional Sexual Violence feature, which explores how sexual violence relates to various societal institutions. The series provides a historical understanding of the ways in which sexual violence is produced through different institutional cultures of harm. This series is a collaboration with The SHaME Project—a Wellcome Trust-funded interdisciplinary research group based at Birkbeck, University of London.
