The international feminist contributors to this book look through the lens of poststructuralism at how child sexual abuse is differently represented and understood in the populist, academic, clinical, media and legal contexts. Reworking earlier feminist analyses, they show how child sexual abuse is not just about gender and power but also about class, race and sexuality. The first, theoretical section of the book critiques normative theories of the 'effects' of abuse, explores the impact and consequences of feminist interventions and critically examines the potential usefulness of a feminist post-stucturalist approach. In the second part, these understandings are applied to specific arenas of practice with the aim of providing a framework for critical intervention and alternative and better ways of working with child sexual abuse.
Author(s): Paula Reavey
Edition: 1
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 272
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
List of contributors......Page 10
Acknowledgements......Page 13
Introduction......Page 14
Exploring the cultural and political landscape of child sexual abuse......Page 26
Feminism's restless undead: the radical/lesbian/victim theorist and conflicts over sexual violence against children and women......Page 28
Childhood, sexual abuse and contemporary political subjectivities......Page 47
Problems of cultural imperialism in the study of child sexual abuse......Page 65
Traumatic revisions: remembering abuse and the politics of forgiveness......Page 90
Creating discourses of 'false memory': media coverage and production dynamics......Page 107
The vigilant(e) parent and the paedophile: the News of the World campaign 2000 and the contemporary governmentality of child sexual abuse......Page 121
How we theorise and intervene in the lives of women who have experienced child sexual abuse......Page 142
The 'harm' story in childhood sexual abuse: contested understandings, disputed knowledges......Page 144
When past meets present to produce a sexual 'other': examining professional and everyday narratives of child sexual abuse and sexuality......Page 161
Diagnosing distress and reproducing disorder: women, child sexual abuse and 'borderline personality disorder'......Page 180
Writing the effects of sexual abuse: interrogating the possibilities and pitfalls of using clinical psychology expertise for a critical justice agenda......Page 200
Working at being survivors: identity, gender and participation in self-help groups......Page 223
Disrupting identity through Visible Therapy: a feminist post-structuralist approach to working with women who have experienced child sexual abuse......Page 239
Index......Page 261
