Rape Myths,Law, and Feminist Research: ‘Myths About Myths’?

In an article recently published in the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, the legal scholar Helen Reece argues that the prevalence and effects of rape myths have been overstated and the designation of certain beliefs and attitudes as myths is simply wrong. Feminist researchers, she argues, are engaged ‘in a process of creating myths about myths’ in a way that serves to close down and limit productive debate in this ‘vexed’ area. In this article we argue that Reece’s analysis is methodologically flawed, crudely reductionist and rhetorically unyielding. We locate Reece’s analysis within the wider theoretical field to show how her failure to engage with feminist literature on rape other than in the narrowest, most exclusionary terms, yields an approach which impedes rather than advances public understanding and panders to a kind of simplistic thinking which cannot begin to grapple with the complexity of the phenomenon that is rape. We conclude by emphasizing the continuing commitment of feminist researchers carefully to theorize and (re)map the fraught field of progressive legal strategizing in order to identify and counter the kinds of risks and shortcomings of political activism with which Reece is rightly concerned.     

Correlates of Externalizing Behavior Symptoms Among Youth Within Two Impoverished,Urban Communities

This study examines whether risk factors associated with child externalizing behavior symptoms differ between two similar low-income, urban communities, using baseline parent data of 154 African American youth (ages 9–15) participating in the Collaborative HIV-Prevention and Adolescent Mental Health Project (CHAMP) family program. Separate multiple regression analyses of each city sample indicated that greater child externalizing symptoms were associated with increasing parenting hassles for New York families (n = 46), but greater parent mental health symptoms for participants in Chicago (n = 108). Understanding such distinctions between communities is an important first step toward tailoring services to unique community needs.     

African American Art in a Post-Black Era

The term “post-black art” was invented in the late 1990's by Thelma Golden, curator and executive director of the Studio Museum in Harlem and Glenn Ligon, an African American artist. This paper examines the origins of the term, its definition and the extent to which the phrase challenges cultural practices that adversely impact artists of color and women. A discussion of the works of two African American artists who worked in the early part of the 20th century provides historical perspective on the origins of damaging cultural practices which prevailed for many decades. Though the civil rights movement instigated real change, the era unwittingly played a role in introducing cultural policies and practices that continued to limit the way in which the work of women and artists of color was presented and interpreted to the public. The paper concludes by observing the work of individual artists who circumvented those limiting cultural policies and practices and who in their imaginatively inventive ways of engaging the public were the precursors to the current "post-black" point of view.     

Gender,Culture and ‘the Spiritual Empire’: the Irish Protestant female missionary experience

This article offers an exploration of the intellectual woman worker in the inter-war years through reference to Rosamond Lehmann's novel, Dusty Answer, and Virginia Woolf's essays, A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas. These texts are read in relation to a number of theorists of the intellectual – Joan Riviere, Pierre Bourdieu, Antonio Gramsci and Edward Said. The article recognises the validity of Sonya Andermahr, Terry Lovell and Carol Wolkowitz's claim that ‘a systematic working through of theories of intellectuals in relation to gender has yet to be written’. As an initial response to that neglect, it investigates the multiple difficulties for the woman in constructing herself as ‘an intellectual’ and relates these problems to issues of class, gender and the cultural history of the intellectual. The article is framed by reference to two of David Lodge's novels of intellectual life, Nice Work and Thinks, in which the story of feminist literary critic, Robyn Penrose, indicates how problematic the position of the woman intellectual continues to be.     

Developing a peace course in police studies: how a culture of peace can enhance police legitimacy in a democratic society

This paper reflects my experiences developing a course within the Criminal Justice Technology Associates of Science degree program at Valencia College that fuses topics unique to peace and police studies. The key challenge in developing this course was in confronting the paradox of the police as instruments of both peace and conflict. In dealing with this paradox, students examine the role of the police in a democratic society and the authority of the police to use coercive force. Key topics covered in this course include defining peace, the police role in peace movements, the history, structure and strategies affecting the police, causes of violence, conflict analysis and conflict intervention, and ethical foundations for peace. In addition, this course examines occupational, organizational, institutional factors that contribute to the development of a unique police subculture that values crime fighting as its core responsibility and the impact of that orientation on police attitudes and behaviors toward the public. Throughout the course, students are challenged to envision a new paradigm for policing that emphasizes a culture of peace rather than a culture of conflict.     

Embodied Care and Planet Earth: Ecofeminism,Maternalism and Postmaternalism

ABSTRACT

The article engages with Julie Stephens (2011) book, Confronting Postmaternal Thinking, which argues for a ‘regendered’ feminism to counter the current postmaternal and neoliberalist focus on paid work to the detriment of relationships of care. Stephens points to ecofeminism as illustrative of a potentially new form of maternalism which could achieve this. While broadly agreeing with Stephens’s diagnosis of neoliberalism as amplifying the impoverishment of relations within natural and societal worlds, I contest her construal of ecofeminism and care ethics to maternalism. Instead, I propose a concept of embodied care that speaks to the ecofeminist imperative to support a radical restructuring of social and political institutions such that they focus on more-than-human flourishing. This is not to argue for a form of regendered maternalism, but neither does it seek to cast maternalism as something to be transcended. Rather, an approach to care that foregrounds connectivity and entangled materialisations provides an ethical resource to confront the dead hand of neoliberalism and a starting place from which to re-figure the postmaternal through a radical and liberatory focus on embodied relatedness.     

Law’s Vulnerability,and Vulnerability in Law

Vulnerability acts as a touchstone in this issue as we find our contributors reflecting on its intersection with gender and sexuality in different ways. Saeidzadeh draws out the significance of misrecognition in her consideration of responses to transsexuality in Iran, while Doonan highlights the potential pitfalls of relying on situational vulnerability in her critique of anti-trafficking legal discourse in the US. Lindsey considers the legal potential of situational vulnerability as a tool to address the ‘persistent failure to take action against abuse’ in the UK. Durojaye and Oluduro contribute to the recent revitalisation in asking ‘the woman question’ by drawing on African law and literature to flesh out the development of a gender-sensitive, substantive equality approach from the jurisprudence of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights as it addresses vulnerability to violence. The reviewers continue this international conversation as they address recent contributions on sexuality, family formation and social security.     

On Being Uncomfortable

Since the last issue of Feminist Legal Studies, we editorial board members have had lots of conversations about comfort, displacement and alienation. As we developed the programme for #FLaK2016 we thought about it as a kind of pulling ourselves out of our comfort zone (Fletcher et al. in Fem Leg Stud 24:1–6, 2016), if academic events and journals ever have a comfort zone. Drawing on a mix of feminist live performance methods and a science and technology studies-type curiosity for objects of experimentation, we tried out a kitchen table method of hosting a live research conversation with activists, artists and academics over two days (Fletcher in Fem Leg Stud 23:241–252, 2015). But we had not fully anticipated the way that the Brexit result would contribute to and complicate discomfort. A fuller analysis of FLaK awaits a later moment, but here we pick out this one aspect of our gathering—feelings of discomfort – as they animate the contributions to this issue in interesting ways.     

Remarks by Mary McAleese, President of Ireland made at the International Association of Suicide Prevention XXIV Biennial Conference, August 31, 2007, Irish National Events Centre, Killarney, Co. Kerry, Ireland

Reducing suicide rates requires a collective, concerted effort from all groups in society: health, social services, other professionals, communities and community leaders, voluntary and statutory agencies and organizations, parents, friends, neighbors, and individuals. It also requires the careful nurturing of a culture in which people in psychological distress don't hesitate to seek help from family, friends, health professionals and community leaders, a culture that recognizes the signs and signals of distress and is willing to help, and that focuses early in life on developing good coping skills and avoiding harmful practices; in short, a sensitive culture that cherishes human courtesy and takes responsibility for our own mental health and the mental health of others. Suicide occurs in many diverse contexts but there are recurring patterns and elements that research is revealing to us. The more we are learning, the better we are able to devise strategies and take action. We already know, for example, that alcohol abuse plays a very significant role in suicide and features prominently in youth suicide. Research has also established that cannabis increases the risk of depression and psychosis and that it reduces normal inhibitions against suicide. Since marijuana is the illegal drug most used by those under25 years of age, a critical factor in suicide prevention must be to inform young people as to its danger and counter the erroneous impression that it is a benign substance. We know that bullying sometimes features in the story of suicide. Our young people need to know just how damaging, just how unacceptable, bullying is. Education and access to support structures - whether at work, school, or home - are an essential part of protecting the victim of bullying not just from the bully but from their own downward spiral into suicidal thoughts. A less discussed but nonetheless important issue worth raising is the issue of dealing with sexual identity. Although Ireland is making considerable progress in developing a culture of genuine equality, recognition, and acceptance of gay men and women, there is still an undercurrent of both bias and hostility which young gay people must find deeply hurtful and inhibiting. For them, homosexuality is a discovery, not a decision, and for many it is a discovery which is made against a backdrop where, within their immediate circle of family and friends as well as the wider society, they have long encountered antigay attitudes which will do little to help them deal openly and healthily with their own sexuality.