On Violence and On Violence Against Women

April 1, 2021

Historian Rose (Mothers: An Essay on Love and Cruelty) writes a wide-ranging and provocative analysis of the ways in which multiple forms of violence intersect on and around women's bodies and create cyclical, systemic power structures designed to pit women against each other. Rose begins her study by addressing the ways in which language and laws defined by white men patrol all bodies; then she expands on how such discourses create the perfect conditions for the reiteration of gender-based violence as an accepted, normative, and even constitutive force. With chapters focused on specific topics related to sexual violence as it intersects with violence related to sexuality, gender identity, race, class, and ethnicity, Rose documents the clear ways in which violence against women is used by individuals in power in order to maintain that power. A powerful chapter focuses on the violence, both physical and emotional, that trans women continue to face. VERDICT This is an urgent book that deserves to be read in classes on feminist theory and gender studies. It's also meant for all readers who are interested in learning more about the ways in which power is literally mapped onto our bodies.--Emily Bowles, Lawrence Univ., WI

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April 1, 2021
Esteemed feminist critic Rose (Mothers, 2018) tackles the broadest of subjects in her inimitable and thoroughly researched fashion in this latest title. Living up to her long-standing reputation for fearlessness and taking on the toughest of topics, Rose demands here that readers consider all the ways in which violence is committed against women. In chapters that survey cases of harassment, assault, rape, and murder, Rose works her clear-eyed way through an absolute blizzard of sources, presenting everything from statistics and government reports to the writings of Roxane Gay, the bewildering reproductive politics of conservative politicians, articles that testify to the pernicious power of celebrity, and ultimately, to the devastating brutality of life for so many South African women. Of particular (and much needed) focus is the history of violence against trans women, to whom Rose devoted two invaluable and illuminating chapters. In truth, any one of the topics Rose raises here could easily be expanded to create its own book. In-depth, complex, revelatory, and nearly overwhelming, this is an important, foundational account deserving of readers' full attention.

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April 15, 2021
A wide-ranging investigation of gender, power, and abuse. British literary scholar and cultural critic Rose examines the impetus for and experience of violence, especially against women. Casting a wide net, she considers sexual predation and harassment; violence against transgender women, including by feminists who engage in "the coercive violence of gendering"; violence depicted in literary fiction; South Africa, where a woman is murdered every three hours and Cape Town is known as the rape capital of the world; and violence against migrant women and children. Although Rose focuses mainly on male violence, she argues that violence is not inherent in masculinity, and she takes issue with feminists who see women "solely or predominantly as the victims of their histories." Nevertheless, she calls sexual harassment "the great male performative, the act through which a man aims to convince his target not only that he is the one with the power, which is true, but also that his power and his sexuality are one and the same thing." Though she does not believe "that all women are at risk from all men," she concedes "that a woman does not say she is scared of a man without cause and that when she does so, we must listen." Drawing on Freudian psychoanalytic theory, Rose sees violence as "part of the psyche," characterizing violent behavior as "a crime of the deepest thoughtlessness. It is a sign that the mind has brutally blocked itself." Feminists, she asserts, must reckon with "the extraordinary, often painful and mostly overlooked range of what the human mind is capable of." Like Hannah Arendt, Rose sees violence as "a form of entitlement" inflamed by "illegitimate and/or waning power." The abuse of refugees and asylum seekers, for example, reflects "the violence of colonial expansion" as well as a "fight to preserve the privilege of the few against the many." An intellectually probing analysis.

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