Everyday moments of disruption: navigating towards utopia

Representations of utopia are often streamlined into being an end goal, a concrete vision for a better future. For mainstream sexual violence response organisations, utopia is largely simplified into being a world without sexual abuse, and the path to this utopia is breaking the silence to end the violence. Using utopic theory, this article will unpick this concentration, and suggest a re-direction towards the granular parts of utopia. Davina Cooper’s concept of everyday utopias will be utilised, alongside the radical work of adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha to highlight the positive alternatives that lie in everyday utopian social justice practices. Drawing on the work of three groups the author currently organises with, Hollaback! London, Sisters Uncut and the Silenced Museum, an opposition between the teleological narrative of early feminist movements and the everyday utopianism of grassroots organising will be drawn. In doing so the article expands upon three core practices fostered in these groups: intersectional prefiguration, visionary fiction-ing, and everyday disruptions. It will thus be suggested that mainstream sexual violence response organisations in the UK engage in a process of unlearning and learning to better navigate towards an everyday utopian world free from sexual violence

Rethinking and Intersectionally Deconstructing Contemporary Sex Workers Rights in England and Wales

Sex work and the laws that surround the selling of sexual acts have been always been plagued by debate, and these discussions are becoming increasingly more volatile. This paper attempts to breach the widening chasm between the two sides and explore the various tensions that exist. Through an exploration of intersectional methods, the theory surrounding legal deconstruction, and newer legal models in England and Wales such as the Merseyside model, this paper illustrates that dismantling the law is not enough. It is instead vital to continually investigate creative ways to use law to protect and support all sex workers, and especially those who reside in the periphery.

Reckoning with the stuckness : a critical exploration into the affective dimensions of feminist politics around justice after sexual violence

This thesis argues there is a state of stuckness shaping contemporary feminist sexual violence politics and work when it comes to the topic of justice. Defined by a need to move forward and enact change to get justice, whilst simultaneously being unable to do so, the way this stuckness manifests varies across different bodies and objects. To draw out these different elements this thesis undertakes discursive work with critical feminist academic texts, and qualitative work combining collage-making and interviews with frontline sexual violence workers and service users with experiences of homelessness. Through drawing together these areas of analysis it argues that that in some instances there is a cyclicity to stuckness, in others stagnation and immovability, and sometimes these states of being overlap. However, in their own ways, each of these states fosters a stuckness that makes shifting away from carceral systems, structures, and logics feel and seem impossible. In conceptualising this stuckness I argue it is produced by two attachments that are both emotional and political in nature. The first of these is the attachment to a limiting notion of justice, that strives to solve something that is inherently unsolvable. While partially due to justice’s intrinsic associations with retribution, fairness and balancing the scales, I argue that this attachment to a justice that solves fosters the more circular parts of the state of stuckness. The second attachment is to survivors and being “survivor-led”, which I define as following a survivor’s wishes without question or critique. I contend that this attachment produces the more stagnant parts of stuckness, whereby texts, workers and service users appear attached to certain carceral ideas about what survivors and perpetrators deserve, despite simultaneously recognising the limits of a carceral politic. In making sense of these attachments, I claim they are undergirded by the perpetual injustice that is both sexual violence itself, and also the systematic lack of justice for survivors, as well as the accumulative effects of feminist political traditions that are invested in affective politics. Central to the arguments made by this thesis is an awareness that this stuckness is difficult and confronting to reckon with. However, in unpacking it in this way, I attempt to contribute to a feminist project and politics that thinks differently about what survivors want, need, and deserve after sexual violence. I thus argue reckoning with stuckness is not only possible, but also necessary if feminism is to further less stuck futures for survivors of sexual violence

Creative and transformative approaches to justice

This chapter arose from discussions that took place between five current and former frontline workers, academics, writers, transformative justice practitioners, and community organisers beginning in June 2020. It seeks to explore what justice for survivors of gendered violence can look like if the criminal legal system is taken out of the equation. From theory to practice, state to the community, and personal to professional, Aviah, Kamilah, Melanie, molly, and Yara explore their own complex journeys into abolition rooted transformative praxis, which so often relies on deep creativity and uncomfortable conversations. In doing so, they hope to highlight alternative ways of thinking and working that can offer different ways of supporting survivors outside of a carceral framework. In striving for the abolition of gender-based violence, so too must prison abolition and transformative justice be seriously considered, and this chapter-rooted conversation calls for greater reflection around current engagements with carcerality when supporting survivors of gender-based violence. Book synopsis: Rape: Challenging Contemporary Thinking – 10 Years On takes stock of current thinking and research about rape and the way it is handled in practice within the criminal justice system, as well as challenging some of the widely held but inaccurate beliefs about rape. The second edition of Rape: Challenging Contemporary Thinking – 10 Years On is not a traditional new edition, although it does provide updated versions of substantive issues covered in the first edition. Bringing the book to the cutting edge, it incorporates both old and new contexts where sexual exploitation takes place, identifying some knowledge gaps especially when considering the voices of complainants/victims/survivors who are invisible or muted, numerous new areas of research including the implications arising from #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, the limitations of our present criminal justice systems, and radical alternatives to closing the justice gap. The new book reflects the global reach of research and thinking about rape, including more international coverage, with material from India, the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as well as the UK. In order to learn from our shared history in this field, two authors reflect on their careers and other authors were encouraged to move away from conventional academic formats to convey their stories. Bringing together leading researchers in the field of psychology, sociology, and law, considering new research, and presenting new data from a strong theoretical and contextual base, the chapters are provocative and engage in innovative thinking, whilst remaining grounded in the available evidence. This book is essential reading for students of criminology, forensic psychology, sociology, criminal justice, law, media studies, and women’s/gender studies. It also aims to inform professionals engaged in the investigation, prosecution of rape, support, and preventative services