In The Force of Nonviolence, Judith Butler presents what she refers to as "aggressive nonviolence... more In The Force of Nonviolence, Judith Butler presents what she refers to as "aggressive nonviolence" as an ethical response to structural and state violence, and the individual violent acts to which they give rise and legitimize. Collectively, these forms of violence can be categorized as oppressive: they are effects of and in turn function to mask, reproduce, and enforce harmful structures and patterns of inequality within society. Given the focus and scope of Butler's analysis, her book will be of interest to scholars and teachers of social and political theory and philosophy, philosophy of race and racism, and gender studies. Butler begins her introduction by providing an overview of oppressive violence. In doing so, she makes clear that the scope of her analysis is not limited to individual physical or embodied acts (the striking of "a blow") but rather also considers the broader sociopolitical context within which such acts occur. "Sometimes," Butler writes, "the physical strike to the head or the body is an expression of systemic violence, at which point one has to be able to understand the relationship of act to structure, or system" (2). She shows that whereas oppressive violence is normatively framed in ways that legitimize it and the structures and patterns of inequality it reproduces, protest and resistance against this oppressive status quo are themselves framed as violent and therefore cast as illegitimate or even criminal, and movements for emancipatory social change are duly repressed. "Exercising rights of assembly is called a manifestation of 'terrorism,' which, in turn, calls down the state censor, clubbing and spraying by the police, termination of employment, indefinite detention, imprisonment, and exile" (5). Butler understands why some on the left call for counter-violence in the face of this fraught sociopolitical context. At the same time, she problematizes the views that violent resistance is sometimes required within a violent context, and that violence is justified for purposes of self-defense, on the grounds that neither perspective sufficiently acknowledges the interconnected nature of existence. "If the self is constituted through its relations with others," she writes, "then part of what it means to preserve or negate a self is to preserve or negate the extended social ties that define the self and its world" (9). Butler does acknowledge that counter-violence may be necessary to dismantle oppressive regimes, but she nonetheless contends that this argument only holds to the extent that meaningful distinctions can be drawn between "the violence of the regime" and "the violence that seeks to take it down" (13). She also worries about containing violence once it has been unleashed and, therefore, that counter-violence may simply increase violence overall. Butler concludes the introduction with a preliminary account of aggressive nonviolence. Distinct from pacifism, nonviolence is not an absolute principle but rather an
This book presents humiliation as a key harm of sexual violence against women, showing that humil... more This book presents humiliation as a key harm of sexual violence against women, showing that humiliation manifests within the relation of self to itself, and that Foucault’s critique of subjectivity provides resources for feminist conceptualization and countering of sexual violence and humiliation. Within feminist philosophy and theory, rape and sexual assault are often described as humiliating to victims, yet relatively few in-depth feminist philosophical accounts and analyses exist of humiliation as a harm of sexual violence against women. This book provides such an account and analysis of both humiliation generally and sexual humiliation resulting from sexual violence more specifically. The book’s elucidation of possibilities for countering sexual violence and humiliation, moreover, breaks with standard feminist approaches by critiquing rather than appealing to subjectivity. Through analyzing specific instances of anti-sexual violence protest, it shows that cultivation of alternat...
Feminist Rage: Countering Sexual Violence and Sexual Humiliation
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2021
This essay argues that feminist rage counters sexual humiliation resulting from sexual violence, ... more This essay argues that feminist rage counters sexual humiliation resulting from sexual violence, as well as the gendered power relations that give rise to and legitimize such violence and humiliation. It begins by showing that sexual humiliation manifests within women’s self-relation in ways that inhibit their countering of oppressive, normalizing gendered power relations; normalization here is understood in the Foucauldian sense of the simultaneity of enablement and constraint, with the latter overshadowing the former in complex and nontransparent ways. The analysis proceeds by presenting rage as an affect and, thus, a manifestation of the self-relation that points to, opposes, and facilitates countering of gendered power. Next, it shows that due to its counternormalizing, counteroppressive character, women’s rage is suppressed. Whereas sexual violence reinforces this suppression in all women, sexual humiliation redoubles it in victims/survivors. The final section of the essay show...
In the 1972 interview from which the above epigraph is taken, Michel Foucault identifies the pris... more In the 1972 interview from which the above epigraph is taken, Michel Foucault identifies the prison as an institution that produces the marginalization of which he speaks. Indeed, the final chapter of Discipline and Punish makes clear that the disciplinary function of the prison continually produces the very population of delinquent individuals it was ostensibly created to reform. Through this production, the prison both justifies its own existence and effectively reproduces existing normalizing power relations within society as a whole. In short, Foucault reveals the prison as a productive failure. From his perspective, part of the work of Le Groupe d’information sur les prisons (GIP) was to make visible the normalizing and therefore oppressive function of the prison—to cast light on it precisely as a productive failure—by allowing the voices of prisoners themselves to be heard; hence, therefore, its collection and publication of prisoner accounts of the conditions of their incarce...
... 13 Foucault's Ethos: Guide (post) for Change Dianna Taylor ... that I must conduct mysel... more ... 13 Foucault's Ethos: Guide (post) for Change Dianna Taylor ... that I must conduct myself in a" professional" manner and, accordingly, I regu-late my behavior or" discipline ... Once we understand this, the significance of Foucault's remark" it is not that everything is bad but rather that ...
Throughout his contributions to an expanding body of scholarship on the work of Hannah Arendt, Ja... more Throughout his contributions to an expanding body of scholarship on the work of Hannah Arendt, James Bernauer has maintained that the concept of amor mundi, or love of the world, is foundational in Arendt’s thinking. He sees the centrality of amor mundi stemming from Arendt’s ongoing efforts to respond to and subsequently navigate the crisis in meaning produced by totalitarianism. This essay concurs with Bernauer’s perspective that throughout the course of her life Arendt was concerned with delineating the nature of, analyzing, and responding to the crisis that characterized the post-totalitarian West. At the same time, the essay interprets the effects of the crisis, and therefore how to proceed in its wake, differently. Whereas Bernauer considers amor mundi to be a redemptive project of “recovery” or world-rebuilding, this essay posits that the crisis in meaning denies the possibility of recovery. It therefore approaches amor mundi as a critical, creative, situational, ongoing proc...
was one of the twentieth century's most influential and provocative thinkers. His work on freedom... more was one of the twentieth century's most influential and provocative thinkers. His work on freedom, subjectivity, and power is now central to thinking across an extraordinarily wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, history, education, psychology, politics, anthropology, sociology, and criminology. "Michel Foucault: Key Concepts" explores Foucault's central ideas, such as disciplinary power, biopower, bodies, spirituality, and practices of the self. Each essay focuses on a specific concept, analyzing its meaning and uses across Foucault's work, highlighting its connection to other concepts, and emphasizing its potential applications. Together, the chapters provide the main coordinates to map Foucault's work. But more than a guide to the work, "Michel Foucault: Key Concepts" introduces readers to Foucault's thinking, equipping them with a set of tools that can facilitate and enhance further study.
makes a case for the relevance of Michel Foucault' s work for feminist theory and practice. As Mc... more makes a case for the relevance of Michel Foucault' s work for feminist theory and practice. As McLaren discusses in Chapter One, "the feminism and Foucault debate" has a long and varied history. Many feminists believe that Foucault dismantles concepts like subjectivity, identity, rights, and freedom and therefore reject his work as politically and ethically insignificant or even harmful. Among those who view Foucault' s work more positively, seeing it as a resource for social criticism, many still consider it to have at best limited ability to articulate a coherent politics or ethics. McLaren aims to intervene in such debates by showing that the critical aspects of Foucault' s work are not merely negative, but in fact possess constructive political and ethical potential. She presents Foucault as both "deeply suspicious of the dominant culture, traditional ways of thinking, and
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