Can the Subaltern Speak?

This paper presents AI-controlled robotic masks intended to empower women and allow them to communicate with one another. These are inspired by the historical masks worn by the Bandari women from southern Iran. Legend has it that these masks were developed during Portuguese colonial rule as a way of protecting the wearer from the gaze of slave masters looking for attractive women. In this project two robotic masks seemingly begin to develop their own language to communicate with each other, blinking their eyelashes in rapid succession using AI-generated Morse code. This project draws upon a Facebook experiment where two AI bots apparently began to develop their own language. It also draws upon an incident when an American soldier used his eyes to blink and spell out the word "TORTURE" using Morse code during his captivity in Vietnam, as well as stories of women using code to report domestic abuse during the COVID-19 lockdown. The aim is to sow anxiety within the patriarchal system where the "wink" of the sexual predator is subverted into a language to protect women from the advances of a predator. The project bridges AI, interactive design, and critical thinking (Figure 1).

Narrating Harm in the Bathsheba Story

The story of Bathsheba and David (2 Sam 11) is increasingly recognized as a story of coercion and rape. However, this judgment often relies on either a notion of consent (critiqued in the previous chapter) or a model of harm organized around the sexual predator (that is, David preys on Bathsheba). This chapter proposes a new model of harm: peremption. Adopted from Joseph J. Fischel’s work on sexual harm, peremption describes an unlimited limiting of future possibility. It also avoids forcing sexual violence into a predator/prey model. In 2 Samuel 11, Bathsheba is both perempted by narrative (in her silencing and erasure) and perempted by masculinity (David’s flourishing comes at the expense of women). She also perempts others, chiefly Abishag. Approaching Bathsheba’s story through peremption reveals a rich portrait of harm without limiting analysis to the question of “was it or wasn’t it rape?” in 2 Samuel 11:2–5.

The Celebrity Icon Mask: The Multi-Institutional Masking of Sir Jimmy Savile

The aim of this article is to develop the concepts of masks and masking to interrogate the role of institutions in the co-production of ‘untouchable’ celebrity icon status. The empirical focus is the multi-institutional masking of Sir Jimmy Savile OBE KCSG. For decades, Savile was celebrated as one of the UK’s best-loved celebrity icons. One year after his death, he was exposed as a serial sexual predator. We argue that the largely compartmentalised official reports on Savile have presented a partial analysis. They have emphasised the importance of Savile’s celebrity status while taking it for granted, downplayed the significance of his moral standing in British society, and marginalised the proactive, enabling role of the BBC, the NHS and the British establishment. However manipulative the individual, we propose that it was Savile’s cumulative multi-institutional masking as celebrity personality (the BBC), celanthropist (the NHS) and, ultimately, celebrity icon (the British establishment) that co-produced his ‘untouchable’ status and enabled him for decades to deflect and discredit rumour, gossip and allegations about his sexually predatory behaviour. We conclude by reflecting on the ‘researchability’ of powerful elites, and by suggesting how our analysis might inform further research into the power dynamics that have co-produced the ‘untouchability’ of other celebrities subsequently exposed as serial sexual predators.

Aspects of Court Culture

This chapter explores the importance of various court activities for which less evidence survives. The king sponsored musicians, entertainers, and learned magistri. He owned fine animals of various sorts, most notably a lion, and surprising numbers of books. He indulged in games and gambling, paid for the dubbing of new knights and other chivalric practices, and even engaged in the occasional romantic gesture. He was also a notorious sexual predator according to chroniclers writing not long after his death. Many of these aspects of court life enhanced John’s reputation and provided him soft power. Often these activities produced power because they produced pleasure among the powerful who attended court. However, John’s pursuit of sexual gratification from noblewomen, sometimes through coercive means, produced a strong backlash that helped put his rule in jeopardy.

Mentally ill, HIV-positive, or sexual predator? Determining myths perceived as representative of transgender people

The present study explored possible stereotypical beliefs, or myths, related to prejudice and discrimination toward transgender individuals in the US. In a 5 x 2 x 3 mixed factorial design, Amazon Mechanical Turk workers ( N = 1,450) read a description of a target depicted as a sexual predator, HIV-positive, having a mental illness, an ally of transgender people, or unfair to others. They then completed an intuitive judgment task regarding the target’s gender (male or female) and identity stigma detail (transgender, sexual minority, or no stigmatized detail), and provided feeling thermometer ratings for various groups. Results indicated that participants perceived mental illness as relatively representative of transgender people, but not HIV-status or sexual predation. Feeling thermometer ratings for transgender people were significantly lower than those for other gender/stigma categories and were negatively correlated with participant religiosity and conservatism. We discuss these findings in terms of gendered assumptions and present implications for gender-related stigma and the role of perceived mental illness in antitransgender prejudice.