“I want to talk about how queer and ‘postmodern’ theory has affected the ability of feminists and lesbians to organise against, or even to recognise violence against women. In queer and postmodern theory, based on liberal individualism, important forms of violence are renamed ‘transgression’, ‘choice’ or ‘agency’. I shall concentrate on 3 forms of violence here, men’s prostitution abuse of women, the violence of transsexual operations, and the violence of the ‘body modification’ industry.
My starting point is that old but now little understood, feminist slogan, ’Our Bodies, Ourselves’. In relation to violence, I suggest, this has two important meanings…”
Read full article by Sheila Jeffreys at Sisyphe here.