Race, the Public Sphere, and Sexual Violence in the Mothertongue Project’s Walk: South Africa

Signs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 537-560
Author(s):  
Nicosia Shakes
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

scholarly journals WHO’S LAUGHING NOW? SURVIVORS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE JOKE ABOUT RAPE

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Lise Frey
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Sexual Trauma ◽  
Traumatic Events ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
The Public ◽  
Stand Up Comedy ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Cultural Responses ◽  
Feminist Work

Survivors of sexual violence in Canada face a culture that is largely hostile to their voices and experiences. Despite this, some survivors turn to the public sphere to work through their trauma. This thesis presents interview data from seven survivors who have performed stand-up comedy about their own experiences with sexual violence. It weaves together critical and clinical trauma theories, feminist work on sexual violence, and communications theories about humour and joking to offer new insights into how cultural responses to sexual trauma can work to challenge dominant attitudes about rape. This thesis ultimately argues that the cognitive, linguistic, and affective strategies that joking encourages can guide survivors towards reconceptualising the traumatic events they’ve experienced and facilitate the integration of those traumas into their lives. By focusing on a novel aspect of survivors’ affective expressions – their fun – this analysis works to make better sense of peoples’ complex responses to trauma.

(Un)Liberated and Contested Narratives

2019 ◽  
pp. 334-347
Author(s):  
Bongani C Ndhlovu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
South African ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
The State ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Many ◽  
Contested Narratives

This chapter analyses the influence of the state in shaping museum narratives, especially in a liberated society such as South Africa. It argues that while the notion of social cohesion and nation building is an ideal that many South African museums should strive for, the technocratisation of museum processes has to a degree led to a disregard of the public sphere as a space of open engagement. Secondly, the chapter also looks at the net-effect of museums professionals and boards in the development of their narrative. It argues that due to the nature of their expertise and interests, and the focus on their areas of specialisation, museums may hardly claim to be representative of the many voices they ought to represent. As such, the chapter explores contestations in museum spaces. It partly does so by exploring the notion “free-spokenness” and its limits in museum spaces. To amplify its argument, the chapter uses some exhibitions that generated critical engagements from Iziko Museums of South Africa.

scholarly journals State Policing: Moral Panics and Masculinity in post-2011 Egypt

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (Summer) ◽  
pp. 94-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariam Mecky
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
The State ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
The Public ◽  
Female Bodies ◽  
The Public Sphere

This article explores the interplay of the politics of moral panics, hegemonic state discourses, and the notion of masculinity in Egypt after the 2011 uprising. As sexual violence in the public sphere has become more visible in Egyptian mainstream public discourse post-2011, the state narrative was often anchored in morality and stability. Through examining three incidents of sexual violence, I attempt to unpack the state rhetoric that aims to police bodies, deeming certain female bodies violable, and vilifying male and female subjectivities. Through the logic of the masculinist state, I examine how the Egyptian state polices women’s bodies and consolidates male sexual dominance over women, using the politics of moral panics. The state, I argue, aims to reinforce its hegemonic masculinity to maintain control over the gendered public sphere and eliminate prospects of socio-political change, thereby consolidating the gendered architecture of citizenship.

Deconstructive Strategies and the Movement Against Sexual Violence

Hypatia ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 63-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renee Heberle
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Rape Culture ◽  
The Public ◽  
Speaking Out ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Public Sphere

This essay considers the social effects of the strategy of “speaking out” about sexual violence to transform rape culture. I articulate the paradox that women's identification as victims in the public sphere reinscribes the gendered norms that enable the victimization of women. I suggest we create a more diversified public narrative of sexual violence and sexuality within the context of the movement against sexual violence in order to deconstruct masculinist power in feminine victimization.

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