Telling Stories about Sexual Violence, Victimization, and Agency in Militarized Settings

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2236609
AutoresJill Steans (University of Birmingham, autor correspondente), Jill A Steans
Ano2021
Volume15
Fascículo4
Páginas522-538
Data de publicação2021-11-09
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoInternational Political Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1749-5679 • E-ISSN: 1749-5687
EditoraOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ips/olab015
OpenAlexW3168197559
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas22

In this article, I contribute to a debate among feminist scholars on whether survivors of sexual violence should be seen as passive victims or as agents who possess the capacity to resist or actively fight back against their assailants. I probe this question in the context of militarized settings, following those scholars who have challenged the constructions of victimhood and agency as a binary and who have instead conceptualized survivors as both victimized and agential. My aim is to bring into conversation feminist analyses with key concepts drawn from Pierre Bourdieu's social theory. I argue that Bourdieu's work not only elucidates structural dimensions of lived experience, but also casts light on how survivors might infuse their actions with meaning in times of crisis. In so doing, I further confront objections that personal testimonies and stories fail to capture the structural, often invisible, forces that shape lived experience. I illustrate my argument through a reading of the wartime journal, A Woman in Berlin. By way of conclusion, I reflect on what Bourdieusian insights into power relations, agency, and narrative bring to feminist discussions on the constraints faced by those recounting survivor stories in public forums in pursuit of recognition and justice

Agency (philosophy) · Argument (complex analysis) · Context (archaeology) · Conversation · Criminology · Epistemology · Meaning (existential) · Narrative · Power (physics) · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Sociology · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Psychology