Should we care about sexual violence?

In 2005, Donald J. Trump was video-taped saying, when you are a star, you can “Grab them by the pussy.” Although this shocking revelation in the closing months of the U.S. presidential campaign threatened to doom his chances, the majority of the U.S. electorate ultimately deemed issues of sexual assault to be inconsequential, bringing Trump to victory on November 8.

Ironically, despite the fact that feminists in the U.S. and Europe have been fighting against sexual violence for more than 40 years, these issues also have become less important for a research agenda.

This new article, “Sexual Violence: Framing the Concepts of Victim and Vulnerability”, by Senior Researcher Robin May Schott, analyzes how the concepts of victim and vulnerability, which are introduced to protect individuals who suffer the harms of sexual violence, often lead instead to dismissal, denigration, and disgrace.

Robin May Schott, “Sexual Violence: Framing the Concepts of Victim and Vulnerability”, in Hilge Landweer and Isabella Marcinski, eds. Dem Erleben auf der Spur; Feminismus und die Philosophie des Leibes, Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2016, p. 153-173.