Responsibility for Sexual Injustices

Toward an Intersectional Account

Bibliographic Data

ID12147405
AuthorsErinn Gilson (0000-0001-6422-7966, Merrimack College, corresponding author), Erinn Cunniff Gilson
Year2022
Volume37
Issue2
Pages422-446
Publication date2022-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHypatia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0887-5367 • E-ISSN: 1527-2001
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/hyp.2022.8
OpenAlexW4225271059
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited39

Public discussion of sexual victimization has intensified within the US context and globally. One noteworthy feature of recent public discourse in the US is that it calls for a broadening of responsibility with respect to both the parties involved and the forms of sexual victimization for which people are held to account. Yet often the narratives about responsibility and practices of responsibility-taking that dominate in this discussion remain individualizing and penalizing. This essay takes stock of the myriad failures of responsibility for sexual injustices in these existing practices and narratives. The first section outlines four philosophical objections to common ways of thinking about responsibility. The second section extends these objections by analyzing the dominant neoliberal narrative framework for responsibility so as then to critique how responsibility is thought about and practiced in relation to sexuality. Finally, given the failures of these narratives and practices, the third section elaborates an alternative that can redress them: an intersectional feminist account of responsibility for sexual injustices that is nonpunitive and takes responsibility to be an intentional practice of altering social relations

Context (archaeology · Heterosexism · Homosexuality · Human sexuality · Moral responsibility · Narrative · Political science · Public relations · Redress · Social responsibility · Sociology · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Gender, Security, and Conflict · History · Law

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