Roads Less Traveled: U.S. Workplace Discrimination from the 1890s to the Present

Reviewing: Lauren B. Edelman, Working Law: Courts, Corporations, and Symbolic Civil Rights (University of Chicago Press 2016); Sophia Z. Lee, The Workplace Constitution from the New Deal to the New Right (Cambridge University Press 2014); Nancy Woloch, A Class By Herself: Protective Laws for Women Workers, 1890s–1990s (Princeton University Press 2015)

Honest Victim Scripting in the Twitterverse

This Article critically analyzes Tweets regarding recent allegations of interpersonal violence against celebrities in order to explore societal perceptions of, and expectations about, alleged victims. The Article concludes that Twitter may be viewed as a micro-courtroom in which victims’ veracity and perpetrators’ responses are evaluated, interrogated, and assessed. A key, feminist critique of rape law is that the determination of the perpetrator’s guilt or innocence too often hinges on an assessment of the victim’s character. This is borne out on social networking sites, where terms such as “gold digger,” “slut,” and “ho” are engaged with regularity to describe those who come forward alleging an assault by a public figure. These derogatory terms serve not only to discipline the accuser but also to critique parties’ behavior as they forge relationships with legal systems and processes. Those who do not conform to what this Article deems an “honest victim script”—showing visible physical injury, promptly reporting non-consensual sexual contact to law enforcement, and refraining from filing a civil suit—risk being labeled “whores,” “bitches,” and “gold diggers.” These accusations are not just offhand comments. Closely examining Tweets reveals the ways in which contemporary viewpoints are shaped within the construct of the law’s historical treatment of rape victims and perpetrators. In just 140 characters, the comments suggest pervasive disbelief of victims whose stories do not fit neatly into the stranger rape paradigm. They reveal distrust of survivors who—rather than or in addition to pursuing justice via criminal law—seek compensation in tort for the harms wrought by sexual assault. Further, and importantly, they signal a profound awareness of both the power of law to affect social change and the legal system’s past and present role in fostering oppressions

Roads Less Traveled: U.S. Workplace Discrimination from the 1890s to the Present

Reviewing: Lauren B. Edelman, Working Law: Courts, Corporations, and Symbolic Civil Rights (University of Chicago Press 2016); Sophia Z. Lee, The Workplace Constitution from the New Deal to the New Right (Cambridge University Press 2014); Nancy Woloch, A Class By Herself: Protective Laws for Women Workers, 1890s–1990s (Princeton University Press 2015)

It\u27s Not All Flowers and Daisies : Masculinity, Heteronormativity and the Obscuring of Lesbian Identity in the Repeal of Don\u27t Ask, Don\u27t Tell

This Essay critiques from a feminist perspective the repeal of Public Law 103-160, 10 U.S.C. § 654, colloquially known as Don\u27t Ask, Don\u27t Tell, exploring previously unexposed connections between increasing rates of sexual assault in the U.S. military and the longstanding, disproportionate enforcement of military anti-homosexuality policies against female service personnel. The discourse surrounding the Don\u27t Ask repeal overwhelmingly has centered on issues regarding the integration of openly gay male soldiers into combat units. This Essay argues, however, that the historical overrepresentation of women as victims of military anti-homosexuality policies, the underrepresentation of women in crafting such policies, and rising rates of sexual assault among troops suggest that Don\u27t Ask, Don\u27t Tell was less about prejudice against serving in foxholes with gay male service members and more about the persistent reluctance to open high-level military careers to women. Uncritically embracing the repeal without carefully examining the discriminatory history of the armed services\u27 anti-homosexual policies, their effects on female service personnel, and the mechanisms in place to protect such personnel from discrimination in the future is shortsighted and risks further entrenching harmful sexist and heterosexist values