WGST 3807

GENDERED VIOLENCE
Welcome to Class!
 Before we consider the topics for the
activism campaigns, we need to
discuss the question of who we can
speak for/about.
Activism Many of the topics that we are
interested in concern groups of
Ideas which we are NOT members and this
is concerning. As we will see,
activism that speaks for others can
be quite problematic.
How to be Allies?
The concerns we have extend beyond our own lives and
are about the lives of others. But the activism projects
have to avoid the challenge of speaking for and about
others.
Scott (2018) identifies the impact of our
presumptions/assumptions on working across groups
and provides some insights into what we bring:

Karla D. Scott (2018) ”Check Yo’ Stuff.” International

Review of Qualitative Research, Summer 2018, Vol. 11,
No. 2, pp. 198-209.
Does your IF your activism topic positions your group as
speaking for or about others – then you will
project need to address the question of being an ally.
position This will require research. You may, for
example, want to talk informally with groups
you as an on campus who might be able to provide you
Ally? with some insights.
Topic Development

The postings varied from quite focused events to general concerns with
a focus (overall) on raising awareness and changing understandings.
You now need to consider how to move from a general topic to an
activism project or from a quite specific focus (a single event) to a
wider connection to a feminist agenda.
We’ll take some time now and try to organise people into working
groups.
Tentative Topics
Topics

1. Choose a topic – note there is a maximum of 5

people per group so if there are a lot of people
interested in a general topic you need to consider
having groups with different foci.

2. Breakout Group discussion = to focus topic.

Setting Topics & Groups
Lecture -- • Extent & impacts of
Week #4 -- everyday violence
Everyday • Microaggression
Violence • Resistance & change
 How common are everyday intrusions?
We will examine what a Cornell
University survey found when they
asked women in an international
Everyday Intrusions survey.
(You can find the Survey results at the
Right To Be research page at:
Right To Be Research Page
 88% of respondents reported their first
experience with street harassment before age
Everyday 17 and 70% before age 15.

intrusion Verbal and nonverbal harassment was most

common and having a person expose himself
was the least common.
s–
Over ½ of the respondents had been groped or
Canadian fondled in the past year.

Findings 79% had been followed by a man or a group of

men in a way that made them feel unsafe; 17%
had had this experience 5 times or more.
 These data refer only to women in general. They
don’t include other kinds of everyday intrusions
related to race, religion, ethnicity, [dis]ability, sexual
identity, etc. Nor do they consider how these
Everyda features intersect to further complicate the harms
done. For example, Black students in Canada face
y assessment bias from their teachers – they receive
Intrusio 2x fewer ‘excellent’ ratings by teachers, despites
having the same standard test scores
ns (https://www.bcg.com/en-ca/publications/2020/real
ity-of-anti-black-racism-in-Canada).
 LGBQT people, especially trans gender
individuals, report that:
Street harassment, being assaulted, and (in
LGBQT2Sall too many situations) being murdered is for
People them (a) a regular fear and (b) a regular
experience for them when they are in public
spaces and especially when they are visibly
“out.”
Gay/Bisexual Men
In one study of openly gay/bisexual men:
• 90 percent said they are sometimes, often, or always harassed or
made to feel unwelcome in public spaces because of their perceived
sexual orientation.
• 71 percent reported constantly assessing their surroundings when
navigating public spaces.
• 69 percent said they avoid specific neighborhoods or areas.
• 67 percent reported not making eye contact with others.
• 59 percent said they cross streets or take alternate routes.
Where/when does it
happen?
• on the street • in a suburb/outside the city
• online • in a manufacturing area
• in public parks • in a retail/sales/shopping
• on public transit center
• in a public transit station • around a lot of people
• in public washrooms • alone or isolate
• on the way to work • late at night
• on the way to school • during the day
• on the way to a social event • while dressed up
• on a university campus • while dressed down
• in well-lit areas or casually dressed, and
• in poorly-lit areas • …
• in a city
Emotional Impacts

Street harassment, generally, evokes strong feelings - especially anger.

Being groped or being followed or stalked is associated with fear & anxiety.

Groping/fondling and exposure are more likely to lead to depression.

Groping/fondling are more likely to lead to low self-esteem.

Microaggressions are associated with increased rates of depression,

suicide & suicidal ideation, avoiding care OR accepting inappropriate care.
Behavioural Impacts – Street
Harassment
• Over ½ of respondents changed their manner of dressing, took
a different route, or changed their transportation, completely
avoided an area, changed the time the left event, or avoided
socialising because of street harassment.
• 16% refused work to avoid harassment.
• 25% reported moving cities to avoid harassment.
• 40% reported being late to school or work to avoid harassment.
Behavioural Impacts

• Leave/resign your job. • Leave online sites, block people,

• Not attend/skip work. remove your on-line presence.
• Refuse or not accept work/job. • Feel distracted at school or work.
• Miss school or skip classes. • Change your behaviour towards of
relationship with friends or love
• Be late for school or work. ones.
• Have to or want to move homes. • Choose a different route home or
• Have to or want to move cities. to other destinations.
• Not go out to a social outing or
event.
• Not go out at night.
 Range of behavioural impacts

• Choose not to show public • Avoid a certain area or city.

affection with a partner or • Avoid online sites.
significant other.
• Change the time you left an event
• Choose to take a different mode or location.
of transportation.
• Join a support group.
• Take a self-defence course.
• Call the police or security.
• Carry a weapon.
• Not socialise or interact with the
• Change what you wear. person.
Street Harassment

Diminishes people’s
Is a tool used to freedom of movement, Isolates victims and
intimidate people. and the activities they makes them feel alone.
engage in.

Is used to ’police’ the

Highlights inequality -
Is used to ‘police’ access of marginalised
by gender, race,
gender & sexuality groups and individuals
sexuality, (dis)ability,
expression. to public spaces –
class/caste, etc.
including online spaces.
 We’ve seen how common street
harassment is, that is it a global
STOPPING phenomenon, and that it has both
negative consequences for individuals
STREET and negative consequences for the
HARASSMENT wider society. How can we stop street
harassment?
What are your suggestions?
Microaggressions -
now we’re going to talk about other
forms of daily harm – these assaults are
often (though not always) subtler than
street harassment – microaggressions.
Microaggressions

“Micro-aggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and

environmental slights, snubs, or insults – whether intentional
or unintentional – which communicate hostile, derogatory, or
negative messages targeted at persons based solely upon their
(usually marginalized) group membership. (Wilson (2017: n.p.)
-- Adapted from Sue Wang’s “Racial Micro-aggressions.)”
Microaggressions

“Microaggressions are communicated

verbally or nonverbally, and
intentionally or unintentionally.
Microaggressions tend to occur
when the person committing them
claims to be unaware of cultural
differences, thus denying any
intended bias (Wilson, 2017: n.p. –
emphasis added).”
Microaggression

Here are the links to the resources on microaggression:

What's up Bin Laden? -- this is just one of a number of microaggression

videos on YouTube that you might want to review.

Responding to MicroAggressions
Breakout Groups

In breakout groups please work

through the microaggression
assignment. You will have 30
minutes. Use your notes from
your prep work.
Small Group Discussion
Internal Dilemmas –
Experiencing microaggression can lead to the following intrusive
cognition as people struggle with what has occurred and how to
respond.

• Did I interpret • Did she say what • What did he • Should I say
that correctly? I think she said? mean by that? something?

• Saying • They’ll probably • Speaking up is

something may think I’m going to hurt more
make it worse. overreacting. than it helps.
Victim Blaming
Targets of microaggressions often become the focus of the
‘issue’ when such attacks are called out or confronted. Targets
may be accused of being “too sensitive” or “not having a
sense of humour”.
Further, while everyone may be aware of what has been said it
is often the targets who are made responsible for pointing out
what has been said or none.
Black Canadians – micro-aggressions -- across
multiple systems
(https://www.bcg.com/en-ca/publications/2020/reality-of-anti-black-racism-in-Canada)
LGBTQ Peoples

A meta-review of 17 studies, involving a total of 9036 LGBTIQ people found

that:
• LGBTIQ people are at an increased risk of microaggression, with Trans
people having the highest risk.
• Experiencing microaggression was associated with risk of depression,
anxiety, suicide attempts, alcohol abuse.
• Microaggression work to invalidate the experiences and feelings of people
and reflect biases held by the aggressor about LGBTIQ people.
 • Use of heterosexist or transphobic
terminology – ex. “That’s so gay”; using
terms such as“tranny”, or“she-male”.
Examples of • Endorsement of heteronormative culture
and behaviors – assuming someone fits the
Microaggressi heteronormative requirements – ex. you
should act “more masculine/feminine” or
ons against asking if they have a girlfriend/boyfriend or
LBTQ2S+ “a wife/husband or kids”
• Assumption of sexual pathology or
people abnormality – assuming that sexual
orientation and sexual identity does NOT fit
heteronormative standards because the
person has been a victim of trauma
Gender & Microaggression
Gender-based Microaggression includes:

1. Treating people as sexual objects -- Sexual objectification.

2. Treating people as less valuable – as Second-class
citizenship.
3. Using sexist language.
4. Making and Acting towards other based on the
assumption of gender inferiority .
5. Restrictions placed on people by the gender roles
6. Denying that sexism exists.
Topic #2
We are now going to switch topics and discuss how many
contemporary feminist campaigns nationally and internationally
focus on the precarity (A condition of existing without
predictability or security, that affects our material and/or
psychological wellbeing) of our bodies to the gaze of others, to the
words and actions of others and how precarity is connected to
socially constructed understandings. Precarity – being positioned
as precarious – is used under neoliberalism to shape our actions –
how we behave, think, and feel – we are challenging this. Shifting
the focus from the targets to the perpetrators.
The body & precarity
Gendered violence, the body, &
precarity

For Baer (2016), contemporary feminist activism

transnationally (including SlutWalk, FEMEN, PussyRiot,
#BeenRapedNeverTold, #MeToo, etc.) are concerned with
the precarity of the body. Bodies as vulnerable to the gaze,
to words, to attacks (physical &verbal) embedded in racist,
homophobic, trans phobia, etc. beliefs.
 Is a condition of existing without
predictability or security.

Precarity We are aware of the precarity in of human

beings BUT Baer argues that precarity is (a)
used instrumentally by neoliberalism and (b)
that the endemic sensation of precarity under
neoliberalism makes it significantly different
than precarity in other historical moments.
The precarity of bodies

Women (cis & trans), racialized people , gay, lesbian,

differently abled bodies (etc.) move in/through spaces where
they are precarious -- what will happen is unpredictable and
where they lack security – not just because they are human
but because of their social identities.
The precarity of bodies

For women, this results from the view of women/women’s

bodies as sexual objects to be consumed by the male (gaze)
and how this view is ‘translated’ into behaviours, actions,
words, and restrictions that are directed towards women by
others. This precarity is intersectional in nature and so there
are oppressive behaviours, actions, & restrictions directed
towards all othered bodies (racialized bodies, ‘differently
abled’ bodies, etc.) because of their being viewed as other
and because their lives are valued less.
Responding to precarity

In the digital age, those who face exceptional precarity

(women, people of colour, trans people, gay/lesbian/bisexual,
etc.) are finding new ways to speak about and to resist this
precarity. We are ‘naming & shaming’ it and talking about
how it impacts.
Responding, as we will see, is complex. It raises questions
about who can speak and about what aspects of precarity
others are willing to ‘hear’.
Resistance to precarity – slut
walks
Baer (2016) argues that in contemporary feminist activism
transnationally (including SlutWalk, FEMEN, PussyRiot,
#BeenRapedNeverTold, & #MeToo), “… the precarious female
body is foregrounded via an emphasis on masking and
unmasking, veiling and unveiling, modesty and uncovering.”
This is especially foregrounded in slut walks.
slut walks
SlutWalk began in Canada in 2011; hundreds of marches
subsequently took place in at least seventy-five cities across the
globe. What are they about?

“These protests engage (symbolically) with the objectification of

female bodies in media culture; with injunctions about
women’s roles in public spaces; and above all with the
subjection of women to sexual violence.”
Slut
walks Slut walks have been viewed by many people as
powerful and effective means of resisting (a)
attempts to blame women for rape and other
forms of sexual violence, (b) the exclusion of
women from public spaces, and (c) to challenge
the construction of women as sexual objects. This
is the position taken by Bruchert and Law (2018).
Are slutwalks liberatory?
Baer The movement failed to acknowledge the key role of
(2016) white privilege in the ability to reclaim the term “slut”,
raises The the movement’s use of the term ‘slut’ normalises
concerns the use of dehumanizing language and symbols,
about
SlutWalk. It foregrounds the bodies of cis-gendered, middle-class
She white women, and
argues The voices & bodies of people of color, LGBT people,
that: economically disadvantaged groups, or sex workers are
often absent.
 We will consider some of the examples
Are that Baer used to base her conclusions
slutwalks on and then consider our/your opinions
of slutwalks and why you have those
liberatory? opinions.
 At SlutWalk Berlin, Baer reports,
members of FEMEN Germany staged an
action in front of the Brandenburg Gate
Challenges in which they appeared with “niqabs”
experienced painted on their faces and naked
at slut walks chests, while holding placards
proclaiming: “No item of clothing
justifies sexual violence” and “Unveil
women’s right to unveil.”
Challenges

What the women of FEMEN did was equivalent to performing

in blackface – a behaviour that is racist and has a long history of
supporting racist tropes and stereotypes. It is inextricably linked
to systematic social and political oppression.
When these issues were raised by people of colour, who argued
that the actions were white-centric. When PoC objected to
these white women speaking on behalf of others, the members
of FEMEN trivialized the criticisms. They rejected the claims
that the behaviour of the FEMEN women denied agency to
Muslim women, specifically and to women of colour, generally.
Using
the
word
‘slut’
 Citeroni (2015) ask if we can reclaim the word ‘slut’
and use it to achieve social justice? To do this
requires resignification of the word ‘slut’ from a
derogatory, oppressive, sexist insult to a word that
Citeron reflects women being empowered to own/control
their own sexuality.
i
Before we explore this a word of caution – while we
(2015) are seeking to create a cultural shift in attitudes,
beliefs, and to reduce sexual & gendered violence
by our use of language (i.e., using the term slut) --
we should not expect slutwalks alone to achieve
these ends.
Slut? Cambridge Dictionary:
“slut - noun [C] (SEXUALLY ACTIVE WOMAN)
• slang disapproving
• a woman who has sexual relationships with a lot of men
without any emotional involvement.”
The word has undertones of the person being ‘dirty’ – that is
sullied by her expression of her sexual desires/choices. Argues
that women should only express their sexual desires with
people they “love”. The term is applied only to women (in this
def’n).
Slutwalks

While it is possible to define the word slut – it is more complex

to understand how it is socially mobilised and to understand the
impact of calling or labelling oneself a slut has for differently
located women. When someone deemed to be a normal,
‘respectable’ woman applies that label the term, Citeroni (2015:
197-8) writes, “… works as a low risk, fleeting tactic to gain
awareness for a cause. For the women, the successful
deployment of sluttiness may be seen as creative, empowering,
playful, and even sexy.”
Slutwalks

BUT .. For others applying that term serves to further degrade them
– it continues to mark them as “low, dirty, & worthless”.
”Being called a slut differently taints women of colour, poor/working
women, queer women, ethnic women, migrant women, disabled
women, trans women, women of the global South, and women with
sexually transmitted infections/illnesses (Citeroni, 2015: 196).”
Citeroni (2015) goes on to talk about how women with cervical
cancer from HPV are told that they got cancer because they were
sexually active at a young age and/or had multiple sexual partners.
“They got cancer because they were sluts.”
 If we have time - Group Work – Slut Walks
You have heard two different views about Slut Walks –
a positive account in the textbook and a more critical
account by Baer.
Use these two perspective and discuss:
Reflecting
1. Your thoughts about slut walks as acts of resistance,
on and
resistance 2. How would you address the concerns raised by
Baer related to:
(a) “speaking on behalf of other”, and
(b) actions that deny agency to others.
Discussion –
Resistance &
Complexity
For Next Week

Test #1 Prep:
• test format
• doing the test online
• questions

After you have completed the test you can work in your
activism campaigns.
For Next We will be discussing gendered
violence in conflict zones in week
Class #6. This is a difficult and
challenging topic. We will be
discussing the comfort women.
The reading is:
Myadar et al. (2022). The
violence of silencing.
https://doi.org/10.1080/096
6369X.2021.2005000