Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Donzelli, S.
Author-Name-Last: Donzelli
Author-Name-First: Stefania
Title: Challenging women’s vulnerability
Abstract: This paper considers explanations of rape related to perceptions of women’s
 vulnerability and of men’s violence and strength as problematic, because of the
 limitations they impose on women’s agency. Under the framework of poststructuralist
 feminist politics of rape and politics of representation, it analyses
 how to bring about change, in relation to these beliefs, at the level of
 discourses. The principal justification to focus on the production of discourses
 rests on the argument that ideas of women’s vulnerability and men’s strength
 participate in constructing discourses that legitimise and normalise rape. These
 reflections are then used to look at the experience of “Sexto Sentido,” a
 Nicaraguan feminist telenovela, produced to incite stimulating critical
 reflection and debate on different oppressive relations of power. More
 specifically, this study discursively analyses how this soap opera challenges
 dominant discourses on masculinity, femininity and rape in Nicaragua. Overall,
 the paper critically discusses the potentialities and challenges of fostering social
 change through discourses.
Creation-Date: 2010-02-01
File-URL: https://repub.eur.nl/pub/19673/wp494.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
Series: RePEc:ems:euriss
Keywords: discourses, femininity, feminist politics, intersectionality, masculinity, politics of representation, power, rape
Handle: RePEc:ems:euriss:19673