Abstract
This chapter critiques a recent defense of the anti-rape movement by Carrie N. Baker and Maria Bevacqua that is symptomatic of white feminism’s understanding of violence and the state. I critique Baker and Bevacqua’s piece for its “knowing, loving ignorance,” as defined by Marianna Ortega. I reach this diagnosis by examining how Baker and Bevacqua use the work of women of color to substantiate their own narrative of the anti-rape movement while distorting the critical and constructive work done by the very people and organizations they cite. I conclude that until there is an ongoing practice of accountability for the history of anti-violence movement collusion with state violence, white feminists should not take leadership roles in policy decisions.
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Notes
- 1.
Sarah Deer, The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015) and Beth Richie, Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation (New York and London: New York University Press, 2012).
- 2.
Patrick Wolfe, Traces of History: Elementary Structures of Race (London: Verso, 2016).
- 3.
Mariana Ortega, “Being Lovingly, Knowingly Ignorant: White Feminism and Women of Color,” Hypatia 21, no. 3 (Summer 2006): 59.
- 4.
María Lugones, “Playfulness, ‘World’-Traveling, and Loving Perception,” in Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition Against Multiple Oppressions (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003):77–102.
- 5.
Ortega, “Ignorant,” 60.
- 6.
Ibid., 61.
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
Ibid., 61–2.
- 9.
Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, “Decolonization is not a Metaphor,” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 1, no. 1 (2012): 3.
- 10.
Carrie N. Baker and Maria Bevacqua, “Challenging Narratives of the Anti-Rape Movement’s Decline,” Violence Against Women (2017): 2.
- 11.
Baker and Bevacqua, “Challenging Narratives,” 6
- 12.
Ibid., 8
- 13.
Ibid., 6.
- 14.
Richie, Arrested Justice, especially chapters 3 and 4.
- 15.
Ortega, “Ignorant,” 62
- 16.
Ibid., 6.
- 17.
Richie, Arrested Justice, 97.
- 18.
See especially Richie, Arrested Justice and Marie Gottschalk, The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
- 19.
Richie, Arrested Justice, 2.
- 20.
Baker and Bevacqua, “Challenging Narratives,” 11.
- 21.
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, eds. Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology. Boston: South End Press, 2006): 3.
- 22.
Ortega, “Ignorant,” 61.
- 23.
California Legislative Information, “AB-2888 Sex Crimes: Mandatory Prison Sentence,” https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2888
- 24.
Sarah Tyson, “Sharing Resentment, Rewriting Scripts: Alternative Responses to the Stanford Rape Trial,” forthcoming.
- 25.
http://knowyourix.org/letter-to-ca-governor-jerry-brown-re-mandatory-minimum-bill/, last accessed 12/30/16.
- 26.
Rose Braz. “Kinder, Gentler, Gender Responsive Cages: Prison Expansion Is Not Prison Reform.” Women, Girls & Criminal Justice (October/November 2006): 87–91; Brady T. Heiner and Sarah Tyson, “Feminism and the Carceral State: Gender-Responsive Justice, Community Accountability, and the Epistemology of Antiviolence,” Feminist Philosophy Quarterly 3, no. 1 (2017): 1–36; Misty Rojo, “Why Gender Responsive Is Not Gender Justice,” Justice Not Jails (November 3, 2014): http://justicenotjails.org/gender-responsive-justice/;.
- 27.
INCITE!, Color of Violence, 4.
- 28.
Ortega, “Ignorant,” 61.
- 29.
INCITE!, Color of Violence, 3.
- 30.
Ibid., 4.
- 31.
Baker and Bevacqua, “Challenging Narratives,” 14.
- 32.
Ibid., 14.
- 33.
Deer, Beginning and End, 106.
- 34.
Ibid., 43.
- 35.
Ibid., 49.
- 36.
Baker and Bevacqua, “Challenging Narratives,” 15.
- 37.
Taiake Alfred, Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
- 38.
Glen Sean Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014) and Patrick Wolfe, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native,” Journal of Genocide Research 8, no. 4 (2006).
- 39.
Kimberly Robertson, “The ‘Law and Order’ of Violence against Native Women: A Native Feminist Analysis of the Tribal Law and Order Act,” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 5, no. 1 (2016): 19.
- 40.
Ibid., 12–13.
- 41.
Ortega, “Ignorant,” 57–8.
- 42.
Baker and Bevacqua, “Challenging Narratives,” 8.
- 43.
Ortega, “Ignorant,” 68.
Works Cited
Alfred, Taiaiake. 2009. Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Baker, Carrie N., and Maria Bevacqua. 2017. Challenging Narratives of the Anti-Rape Movement’s Decline. Violence Against Women: 1–27.
Bevacqua, Maria. 2000. Rape on the Public Agenda: Feminism and the Politics of Sexual Assault. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Braz, Rose. 2006. Kinder, Gentler, Gender Responsive Cages: Prison Expansion Is Not Prison Reform. Women, Girls & Criminal Justice, October/November. 87–91.
Coulthard, Glen Sean. 2014. Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Deer, Sarah. 2015. The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Gotell, Lise. 2015. Reassessing the Place of Criminal Law Reform in the Struggle Against Sexual Violence: A Critique of the Critique of Carceral Feminism. In Rape Justice: Beyond the Criminal Law, ed. Anastasia Powell, Nicola Henry, and Asher Flynn, 53–71. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gottschalk, Marie. 2006. The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Heiner, Brady T., and Sarah Tyson. 2017. Feminism and the Carceral State: Gender-Responsive Justice, Community Accountability, and the Epistemology of Antiviolence. Feminist Philosophy Quarterly 3 (1): 1–36.
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, eds. 2006. Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology. Boston: South End Press.
Lugones, María. 2003. Playfulness, ‘World’-Traveling, and Loving Perception. In Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition Against Multiple Oppressions. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Ortega, Mariana. Summer 2006. Being Lovingly, Knowingly Ignorant: White Feminism and Women of Color. Hypatia 21 (3): 56–74.
Richie, Beth. 2012. Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation. New York/London: New York University Press.
Robertson, Kimberly. 2016. The ‘Law and Order’ of Violence against Native Women: A Native Feminist Analysis of the Tribal Law and Order Act. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 5 (1): 1–23.
Rojo, Misty. 2014. Why Gender Responsive Is Not Gender Justice. Justice Not Jails, November 3, http://justicenotjails.org/gender-responsive-justice/.
Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. 2012. Decolonization is not a Metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 1 (1): 1–40.
Wolfe, Patrick. 2006. Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native. Journal of Genocide Research 8 (4): 387–409.
———. 2016. Traces of History: Elementary Structures of Race. London: Verso.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Geoffrey Adelsberg, Lisa Guenther, and Carl Tyson for reading and commenting on earlier drafts of this chapter.
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Tyson, S. (2018). Feminism, Violence, and the State. In: Boonin, D. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Public Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93907-0_8
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