the politics of child sexual abuse emotion social movements and the state aug 2009

[...]... culture and public policy I seek to shift the terms of these debates, to emphasize the complexity and contradictions of politics on the ground, and to take seriously the aims and understandings of the activists involved in these social changes (Apostolidis 2008: 546) Therapeutic Politics and the Therapeutic State Because inequality operates at the levels of individual subjectivity, culture, and policy, social. .. 1970s They saw sexual violence against children as a product of patriarchy in which fathers were granted control and access over all members of their families Emphasizing its frequency and political roots, they were key in bringing child sexual abuse to the attention of media, psychotherapists, and the state They sought cultural change through the creation of new knowledge about child sexual abuse and. .. the issue and how institutions respond to it, and spawned multiple new forms and sites of activism These new forms of activism, heavily influenced by the feminist notion of the personal as political, politicized emotion and the effects of inequality on individuals, targeting them for social change (Meyer and Whittier 1994) The movement against child sexual abuse is a microcosm of these politics of emotion. .. medical professionals, law enforcement, and elected of cials These changes, influenced by other actors, illustrate the complex long-term outcomes of the women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s Activism against child sexual abuse exemplifies post-Sixties politics It was shaped by the movements of the 1960s and 1970s, entered the mainstream in watered-down form like so many other offspring of the 1960s,... attention.2 Whether we consider these social changes as evidence of a successful social movement depends on our definition of success and our view of the value of something less than complete social transformation Introduction 11 Social Movements, Social Construction, and Social Control The case of child sexual abuse illuminates key questions about how activists contribute to social change, how the state and. .. response to child sexual abuse has changed, sometimes more than once, since 1970 This book tells the story of how we got from there to here and explores what that journey tells us about child sexual abuse, gender politics, and how social change happens The changes that these vignettes illustrate are due to the efforts of a social movement of child sexual abuse survivors, feminists, professionals, and other... feelings and identities, changing the culture, and changing policy (Collins 1990; Polletta 2002; Rupp and Taylor 2003; Taylor 1996; Whittier 1995, 2002) Understanding therapeutic politics requires considering the connections between the forms that social movements take and the forms of the state; thinking about the political significance of emotion and the self; and considering the implications of politics. .. sexual abuse They planted the seeds for a profound change in how laypeople, policymakers, and psychotherapists came to view child sexual abuse In the early 1970s, feminists active against rape began targeting child sexual abuse as a political issue and one of the many forms of violence they argued affected women The first feminist activists on the issue broke 21 22 The Politics of Child Sexual Abuse new... focusing on the activists and organizations that sought to change society’s response to child sexual abuse, I cast these questions in a new light My key theoretical arguments are linked to the central questions of the meaning of the growth in therapeutic forms of activism, and the interplay between movement gains and the agendas of the state and mainstream culture in social change I argue, first, that therapeutic... ways of understanding themselves The paradox is similar: the rise of the nation state simultaneously made possible greater regulation and exploitation of the population, and created the circumstances and frameworks under which challenging groups would emerge Likewise, state regulation of daily life, emotion, and the self subjects the population to further surveillance and control, and yet creates the . w0 h0" alt="" The Politics of Child Sexual Abuse This page intentionally left blank THE POLITICS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE Emotion, Social Movements, and the State Nancy Whittier 1 2009 3 Oxford. in bringing child sexual abuse to the attention of media, psychotherapists, and the state. They sought cultural change through the creation of new knowledge about child sexual abuse and emphasized the. emotion and the effects of inequality on individuals, targeting them for social change (Meyer and Whittier 1994). The movement against child sexual abuse is a microcosm of these politics of emotion