Rethinking Violence – Part 2
Mainstream Feminist Movements that Centre Patriarchy
• 2020 context: lecturer looks back at movements that grew “over the last decade.”
• Core strategy reviewed in Part 1 = legal reform; Part 2 broadens to global, culture-based activism.
SlutWalk (Origin & Goals)
Began in Toronto after a Toronto Police officer told York University law students women should "stop dressing like sluts" to avoid assault.
Tactic: reclaim and repurpose the slur “slut” to expose victim-blaming, slut-shaming, and the power to police women’s sexuality.
Messaging: If the label can be pinned on any one woman, it can be pinned on all women; therefore none of us is safe until the label loses power.
Spread rapidly worldwide, illustrating trans-national resonance of victim-blaming critiques.
Critique from Women-of-Colour (WOC) Feminism: events tended to prioritize white, cisgender women’s experiences and visibility.
#MeToo (Origin & Tensions)
Hashtag exploded after allegations against Harvey Weinstein.
Purpose: give survivors voice, prove pervasiveness of sexual violence, name systemic male power.
Historical roots: Tarana Burke (Black feminist activist) began “Me Too” years earlier; celebrity uptake partially obscured this lineage.
Repeated critique: Mainstream amplification often sidelines Black, Indigenous, trans, and poor women’s labour and stories.
“Un violador en tu camino / A Rapist in Your Path”
Chilean feminist collective Las Tesis created performance; chorus blames state institutions (police, courts, presidency) for rape culture.
Went viral—performed on every inhabited continent.
Demonstrates:
• Global reach of patriarchal victim-blaming;
• 4th-wave tools (flash-mob performance + viral media) to shame state complicity.
Vickers’ Critique of Mainstream Feminism
• Jill Vickers: mainstream feminism correctly centres male violence but remains limited when it:
– Treats patriarchy as the sole/root cause;
– Employs essentialist ideas of womanhood and “good victims.”
Essentialism & the “Good Victim”
Early shelter/rape-crisis models often helped women conforming to normative scripts (e.g., leaving male partner, showing no anger).
Bonita Lawrence’s story: rejected support because she did not match the expected narrative.
Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) reproduce narrow biology-based definitions, erasing trans women’s experiences of violence.
Intersectionality is Required
Multiple, overlapping sources of risk: race, class, disability, sexuality, immigration status, colonial status.
Marginalized cis & trans women face:
• Higher frequency;
• Different kinds;
• More public/random assaults.
Problems With Criminal-Justice Reliance
• Police → Crown → Judges = gatekeepers; each layer embeds patriarchal bias.
Specific Barriers
Police decide whether to lay charges; rape myths can shape that decision.
Crown represents “the Crown,” not the survivor—case pursued only if deemed winnable.
Courtroom = "second assault": repeated storytelling outside therapeutic context, credibility attacks, memory scrutiny.
Trauma & Memory Metaphors
Lecturer’s coffee-then-shower memory vs. disorganized trauma recall illustrates how ordinary chronological memory differs from trauma-affected memory.
Falling-down-stairs example: subjective time distortion underscores why survivors’ timelines may appear inconsistent.
Resulting Pattern
Trials hinge on survivor’s character rather than defendant’s actions.
Old myths linger: clothing, alcohol, sexual history “cause” rape.
Community Accountability & Insight Model
• Women-of-Colour activists (e.g., INCITE!) call for approaches that address:
– Violence within communities, and
– Violence against those communities by outside/state actors.
Stolen Sisters Example
High numbers of missing & murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) demand examination of:
• Colonial policies,
• Police indifference,
• Intra-community gender dynamics shaped by colonial trauma.
Violence as Abuse of Power – The Continuum
• Vickers reframes violence as any abuse of power, not solely male power.
• Power inequalities (gender, race, class, ability, sexuality, nationality) create conditions for violent abuses.
• Continuum links:
Gender-based violence connects to military aggression and to structural deprivation.
Structural Violence
• Definition: systemic denial of basic life necessities—food, water, shelter, healthcare, education—to particular groups.
Key Characteristics
Bodily harm without direct blows (e.g., unsafe water, inadequate housing).
Often invisibilised because harm is slow or normalized.
Canadian Course Connections
Colonial dispossession → lack of clean water on reserves; disrupted governance systems.
Neoliberal welfare cuts (Little): loss of intensified harassment, assault for single mothers.
Lecturer predicts pandemic-era recession will heighten domestic violence (economic stress + isolation).
Militarization & War as Gendered Violence
Legal vs. Celebrated Violence
Domestic laws criminalize individual assault while states authorize/celebrate soldier violence abroad—revealing selective legitimation.
In-Service & Post-Service Risks
Sexual assault rates among women in US & Canadian militaries significantly exceed civilian rates.
Domestic violence on US military bases = the national household average.
War-Zone Dynamics
Sexual violence used as tactic/weapon; historically ignored in tribunals until late 1990s.
UN formally recognized conflict-related sexual violence as a war crime only in .
Broader Gendered Fallout
Rise of religious/political fundamentalisms policing women’s roles (Iraq, Afghanistan, US).
Care burden: destroyed infrastructure → unpaid health & elder care placed on women.
Refugee flows are feminized: ≈ of global refugees are women.
Implications for Ending Violence
• Individual prosecutions alone = insufficient.
• Must tackle structural power imbalances: colonialism, racism, capitalism, heteropatriarchy, ableism.
• Community-based and intersectional strategies offer more holistic prevention and support.
Next Step – Trans Women of Colour
• Students assigned to watch "Backlash Against Our Existence: Laverne Cox on Violence Against Trans Women of Colour."
• Task: apply continuum/structural analysis to understand why trans women—especially Black & Latinx—face epidemic levels of violence and murder.