Rhetorically Reconfiguring Victimhood and Agency: Reaching Beyond The Violence Against Women

Act’s Civil Rights Clause

Based on a paper published with Rhetoric and Public Affairs, volume 6:1 (spring 2003), pp. 97-126.

Prepared by:

Dr. Caroline (Kay) Picart, Florida State University

Fictional Renditions: Questions

Identify any films you know that deal with rape.

Is there a common theme concerning victimhood and agency that emerges from these accounts?

Fictional Renditions: Examples

Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) I Spit on Your Grave (1978) Extremities (1986) The Burning Bed (1984) The Accused (1988)

VAWA: Questions

What is the Violence Against Women Act?

What is the VAWA civil rights remedy?

Case Studies

To prove the centrality of this crucial dichotomy, I aim to examine the medicalized and legalized rhetorical tactics deployed in the cases of:

1.) Lorie Mattison v. Click Corporation 2.) Mary Y. Liu v. Giacomo Striuli and Providence

College 3.) Christy Brzonkala v. Antonio Morrison, et. al. 4.) Christy Bergeron v. Paul Bergeron

Case 1: Lorie Mattison v. Click Corp.

What are the facts of the case, according to the court records?

What was the outcome of the case?

Questions

Comment on depictions of agency and victimhood in the case.

Comment on depictions of race, class, gender and sexuality implied in the characterization of this case.

Case 2: Mary Y. Liu v. Giacomo Striuli and Providence College

What were the facts of this case, as presented by the court records?

How did the case turn out?

Question

What were the implicit characterizations of victimhood and agency in relation to depictions of race, gender, class, sexuality, in this case?

Case 3: Christy Brzonkala v. Morrison, Crawford, Virginia Polytech Institute and State Univ.

What were the facts of this as presented by the court documents?

How was this case presented in the media?

What was the outcome of the case?

Case 4: Christina Bergeron v. Paul Bergeron

What were the facts of this case, as presented by the court records?

What was the outcome of the case?

Sources

[i] Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity, Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color,” in Critical Race Theory, eds. Kimberle Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, Kendall Thomas (New York: The New Press, 1995), 364.

[ii] See, for example, Andrea Dworkin, Intercourse (New York: Free Press Paperbacks, 1987); Andrea Dworkin, Life and Death: Unapologetic Writings on the Continuing War Against Women (New York: The Free Press, 1997); Catharine MacKinnon, Feminism Unmodified: Discourse on Life and Love (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987); Catharine MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989); Catharine MacKinnon, Only Words (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993).

[iii] For an analysis of how MacKinnon and Dworkin’s rhetorical strategies ultimately mime Nietzsche’s characterizations of ressentiment and slave morality, refer to: Caroline J.S. Picart, “Reifying a Cycle of Violence: Health, Disease and Resentment in MacKinnon and Dworkin’s Feminist Legal Theory,” in The Variables of Moral Capacity, ed., David Thomasma (Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Press, forthcoming, 2002).