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.
Tag: sexual violence
Involuntary Sterilization
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.
Between Vulnerability and Sexual Agency
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.
(Un)Silenced: Institutional Sexual Violence
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.
Murder in Cardigan: Sex Work, Social Reputation and Women’s Agency in Eighteenth-Century Wales
Complicated and often conflicted responses to sex workers who become victims of violence is by no means new, and is not limited to police and the courts. If we look at evidence from earlier centuries it is clear that both social and legal responses often had little to do with the legality of sex work, and far more to do with attitudes towards women’s sexual reputations.
Panel Discussion on Women Against Rape
Panel discussion of WAR (Women Against Rape) at Pembroke College, Cambridge, 7th February 2017 to coincide with Sexual Violence Awareness Week.