POWER AND SEXUALITY
Power and Resistance
Embodiment of Power
Rape and Sexual Violence
Foucault: Power and resistance are fundamentally linked in that the existence of power structures always implies room for resistance
Power dynamics present in intimate relationships necessarily make personal relationships and sexual relations a site of resistance
Foucault: power is embodied when certain forms of behavior feel right to us, i.e,. when our bodies 'naturally' take on the correct position for a certain situation
Link between power structures and (women's) bodies places sexuality and sexual relations at the center of gender dynamics
Sexual relations or physical contact within personal relationships present ways in which interactions and dynamics between the sexes become embodied and naturalized
"All heterosexual sex is rape"
Certain feminist scholars (e.g. Dworkin, MacKinnon) have argued with regard to an equation of heterosexual intercourse and rape (e.g. comparing victims' reports of rape with women's reports of sex
Individual Cases of Rape symptomatic of and resulting from wider gendered power structures
Brownmiller: All rape is an exercise of power even though some have an edge that is more than physical and some do not (Brownmiller 1975)
Bart's Continuum of Sexual Violence (Bart 1996)
Women and Victimhood
Bourke links constant state of fear to overall conceptions of masculinity and femininity as well as gender dynamics (Bourke 2007)
Brownmiler: "women are trained to be rape victims. To simply learn the word 'rape' is to take instruction in the power relationship between males and females" (Brownmiller 1975: 309)
Heterosexual penetrative sex is to a certain degree always a form of violence
Language and Power
Not just the physical act of penetrative sex that represents an embodiment of power structures, but also the language used to describe personal and sexual relationships
Different way in which agency is assigned in the description of sexual encounterds by men and women
Bourke outlines how rape discourse has shifted it's emphasis from male danger to female vulnerability
Victim-blaming in discussions of male-on-female rape is an instance in which sexual relations become a site of feminist claims
Mardorossian identifies the attribution of responsibility to women as "a new form of panopticism, an interiorized and individualized system of surveillance by which every women becomes her own overseer" (Mardorossian in Bourke 2007)
Simply the discussions around male-on-female rape and the actions women are taught to adopt in order to avoid such an experience are a form of the (self-)policing of women in a patriarchal manner
Sex and Gender Identity
Disagreement whether male-on-female rape is an act of expressing patriarchal concepts of masculinity or whether it is in fact the opposite in that it "threatens the myth upon which modern manliness is constructed" (Bourke 2007: 417)
It is precisely this disagreement that allows scholars to explore women's role in patriarchal structures with regard to the concept of masculinities
Segal: "for many men it is precisely through sex that they experience their greatest uncertainties, dependence and deference in relation to women - in stark contrast, quite often, with their experience of authority and independence in the public world" (Segal in Mottier 2008: 73)
Following this argument, can we conceptualize male-on-female rape as an attempt to regain the power taken away from men in sexual relations
Male-on-female rape as reinforcing the violent male as society's 'ultimate man' (Jane Caputi 1987)
Bourke argues that manliness is precisely the trait rapists are seen to lack (Bourke 2007)
Schilt and Westbrook's work on violence against trans individuals reveals the way in which men 'reclaim' their heterosexuality by emphasizing their masculinity through violence
Study showed a large number of men feeling their heterosexuality had been questioned by engaging in sexual relations with transwomen --> They then showed extreme violence towards these women in an attempt to establish their heterosexuality by engaging in what is considered to be highly 'masculine' behavior
Highlights the way in which (Western) patriarchal societies center their understanding of gender roles around (hetero)sexuality but it also once again shows why intimate relationships are a key site of resistance and feminist claims
'The Personal is Political'
In many instances it is everyday interactions between men and women that are shaped by and manifestations of patriarchal structures
It is often the issues that are most personal and relevant to women in their daily lives that are highly shaped by patriarchal structures
Intersectionality
Intimate relationships have become a particular site of feminist claims because they allow us to apply an intersectional method to structural debates that are prone to losing sight of individuals' experiences
Example: the ways in which race influences the discourse and narrative surrounding cases of rape highlights the need for intersectionality in feminist claims
Smith in Crenshaw 1991 on the 'sexual hierarchy of bodies'
Crenshaw draws on Valerie Smith's work in highlighting how the narrative around a highly publicized case of a jogger raped in Centreal Park became intertwined with racist discourse through the dehumanizing language used to describe the rapist
She highlights the "devaluation of Black women and the marginalization of their sexual victimizations" (Crenshaw 1991: 1268)