The Philosophy of Sexual Violence
This volume investigates sexual violence.
Themes include consent, harms, rape culture, oppression, fear, resilience, reparations, justice, pleasure, art, & healing.
Topics include rape, childhood sexual violence, fantasy, theatrical depictions of violence, kink, & sex witchcraft.
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This book is an exploration into multi-modal philosophy
Several contributions are (or integrate)
art, poetry, & philosophical reflections on life experiences.
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eds. Georgi Gardiner & Micol Bez
Routledge, forthcoming
Content Note.
This webpage includes material that some viewers may find shocking or distressing.
In particular, there is a vivid photograph of what can be interpreted as a woman in distress. She is gasping into plastic wrap. It is not a depiction of a sexual act or violation. As described in the accompanying text, this imagery represents frustration and fury.
One image contains a child holding a gun, mild erotica, and (I think) a medical image of an organ. Another includes a shadow of a gun directed at a 'female form'.
This webpage also includes dramatic poetry about kink practices, an image of a vibrator, sculptures of vulvas, and other (badass) images that some viewers might find troubling to see and that may not be suitable for children. Viewer discretion advised.
This volume is interdisciplinary.
It includes work from theatre studies, psychology, the social sciences, trauma studies, film & media studies, cultural studies, sex studies, psychoanalysis, indigenous studies, and philosophy.
The volume is multimodal.
It includes 14 philosophical images, including sketches, paintings, photography, pottery, sculptures, conceptual art, a stylised diagram, collages, and a hitachi wand tarot card.
The volume features poetry, including visual poems and an artistic blackout poem.
It also includes a cuss-infused rap in which a philosopher reflects on their experience of sexual violence, a social media post, and a manifesto contributed by a radical collective.
These pieces are interwoven amongst personal narratives, a short story from novelist-philosopher Carrie Jenkins, reflection questions for the reader, a roundtable of hot takes from cross-disciplinary thinkers, and 20 philosophical essays.
Puki Dentata
By Bernadette Floresca
Just a Body
by anon
This diversity of formats befits the topic.
A lot of feminist and victim-centred thought, and thinking about sexual violence, occurs outside of academic essays.
We wanted to reflect this rich history of thought through modes like dialogue, manifestos, narratives, and social media posts.
Analytic philosophy that is based on personal life experience is on the rise.
Many of the essays, and most of the other contributions, draw on first-personal experiences of sexual violence, oppression, pleasure, healing, and/or kink.
This methodology raises distinctive challenges, opportunities, and ethical questions. As you can well imagine, our volume is a multifaceted case study on this theme.
Philosophical reflections on life experience are aided through multi-modal approaches to thinking and communicating, such as art and social media posts.
The visual art, poetry, autobiographical philosophy, and other modes are thus integral to the project.
This book is an exploration into multi-modal philosophy.
We are thrilled that Routledge is publishing this experimental volume.
We are grateful to those who spearheaded autobiographical and intermodal philosophy. We are indebted to you.
This volume raises intense and intensely personal topics.
We are honoured that all those who submitted work entrusted us withe their stories, ideas, and creations.
What are you looking at?
Conceptual Sculpture by Violet Ruby
Sample Content
“To Quench Rage”
by Ashley Watermeier
Abstract: This piece demonstrates the nature of pent-up fury releasing itself after so many years of disregard and neglect. Often the small comments on sexually “correct” behavior or plain acceptance of sexual misconduct build up in one’s consciousness until something sets them off. There is no target for this anger except for life itself, resulting in a blinding, unadulterated, confusing, and frustrating rage. This is what this piece seeks to capture. The subject is thrashing out at nothing, in particular, but is still being caged and held back. Emotion cannot beget change, yet it is the most natural response to repression.
To Quench Rage
Photography by Ashley Watermeier
Delly Haseldine
Defence
"The Walk Home"
by Delly Haseldine
There was often a fake call on my phone
To make me feel less ‘on my own’
With a fear that lingers
and keys pressed between fingers
Just hoping to make it back home
Table of Contents
Foreword
Louise Antony
Editors' Introduction
Part One: Consent and Non-Consent
[3 essays + 1 poem + 1 art]
A Euthyphro Problem for Consent Theory
Essay by Jonathan Ichikawa
The Special Wrong of Sexual Non-Consent: The Limits of the “Consenting Adults” Paradigm
Essay by Anna Hartford
What are you looking at?
Sculpture by Violet Ruby [editors' note: two images ]
Do You Mind Violating My Will? Revisiting and Asserting Autonomy
Essay by Eli Benjamin Israel
Red Lines
Visual poem by Luna Afra Evans
Love Letter to the Man Whose Life I Ruined
Collage by Wilma Matleena Peräoja
Part Two: The Harms of Rape
[Editors’ note: 3 essays + 1 digital art + gun photo with paragraph]
Epistemic Harms of Sexual Violence
Short essay by Marina Trakas
Just a Body
Digital artwork by anonymous
#MeToo and Insults
Essay by Helen L. Daly
Considering Syncretic Sociability for Survivors of Child Sexual Violence
Essay by Emily S. Lee
Shadow Fear
Photograph and social media post by Georgi Gardiner
Shadow Fear
Photography by Georgi Gardiner
Part Three: Culture and Rape Culture
[4 essays + 1 personal narrative reflection piece + 1 poem + artwork]
The Banality of Sexual Violence
Essay by Karen Adkins, with autobiographical reflections
boys will be boys
Visual poem by Kelsey Britt
Shifting Our Perspective on Sexual Assault Testimony
Sarah Brophy
The Moral Risks of a #MeToo Mea Culpa
Alice MacLachlan
Barriers to Disclosing
Visual art by Susy Ridout
What Donald Trump and Freddy Krueger Have in Common: The Phenomenology of Sexual Violence, Traumatic Memory, and Lessons from Nightmare on Elm Street
Saraliza Anzaldúa
Scars from home: social geography, familial relations, and patriarchy
Personal narrative by Saba Fatima
Part Four: Resilience, Resistance, and Protest
[3 essays + rap + maybe photo + 1 poem & sketch together ]
Trauma as Epistemic Skill
Essay by Elís Miller Larsen
The Walk Home
Visual art and poem by Delly Haseldine
Police car image
Photography by Cathey Peyton
Storytelling As Protest: Reflections on #MeToo
Essay by Clair Morrissey
FRIDAY, MAY 6
Rap by Georgia Rae Rainer
Forgiving for One’s Own Sake
Essay by Larisa Svirsky
Fuck your made up trolley problems! A manifesto
Manifesto by an anonymous feminist collective
Puki dentata
Ceramics by Bernadette Floresca
Blackout poem by Anon
Part Five: Repair and Reparations
[3 essays + scream photo + roundtable]
The case for Epistemic Reparations for Sexual Violence. A structural take
Essay by Micol Bez
Sexual violation and the language of repair
Essay by Quill Kukla, Cassie Herbert, and A. Abbiw Watson
On the Necessity and Limits of Transitional Justice Responses to Sexual Violence
Essay by Colleen Murphy
To Quench Rage
Photography by Ashley Watermeier
Roundtable: What would reparations for sexual harm look like, and do we want them?
Interventions by:
Jameta Barlow
Alisa Bierria
Sarah Deer
Shannon Eaves
Lisa Factora-Borchers
Leigh Goodmark
Judith Herman
Judith Levine
Erica Meiners
Dian Million
Avgi Saketopoulou
Part Six: Sex Crafts and Healing Arts
[2 essays + short story + tarot card + black out poem + 2 collages]
Ace of Wands
Tarot card by Siren Santina
Sex Witchcraft: Sex is So Good it Can Improve the Rest of your Life. And Philosophy can Help.
Essay by Georgi Gardiner
Love Letter to the Man Whose Life I Ruined
Collages by Wilma Matleena Peräoja [editors’ note: two images]
From Unpleasure to Pleasure: BDSM and kink as a way of transforming trauma and its connections to Theatrical Intimacy Design
Essay by Jessamyn Fitzpatrick
Double Blackout
Blackout poem by Venus Infers
The Contingency Plan
Short story by Carrie Jenkins
Ace of Wands
Tarot card by Siren Santina
Details and submission instructions are here. (The CFP).
Deadline Dec 1st 2023.
In addition to standard essays, we welcome experimental philosophical contributions, such as poems, artworks, letters, short stories, manifestos, and diary entries. This flexibility of format reflects that thinking philosophically about rape often happens in conversations, community, diary entries, and artworks, rather than in standard academic essays. It also honours the rich feminist, Black, and non-Western traditions of varied scholarly engagement and formats.
The hardback version will be $170 / £130. The eBook and paperback versions will be $52.95/£38.99.