![Sample our Communication Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, 2013 & 2014 volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5927/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Information-Science2.jpg"})
Abstract
Following calls to center nation, we analyze sexual violence discourse in the US Peace Corps. The texts we consider deploy three typical dichotomies—public/private, self/other, and agent/victim—that, in this case, reveal inconsistencies at the intersections of race and gender. We argue that these inconsistencies are evidence of lability, counterintuitive discursive shifts necessary to maintain white heteromasculine dominance. Instead of blaming individual victims of rape and assault, the masculinization of victimhood shifts culpability to the Peace Corps. This organizational blame maintains the moral position of the US and legitimates imperialism. By marking these instabilities, we trace the solidity and vulnerability of sexual violence discourse as it organizes global power.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Karen Ashcraft, Celeste Montoya, Kristina Ruiz-Mesa, and Graham Slater for their feedback on earlier drafts of this manuscript.
Notes
[1] Lisa Cuklanz, “Gendered Violence and Mass Media Representation,” in The Sage Handbook of Gender and Communication, ed. Bonnie J. Dow and Julia T. Wood (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006), 343.
[2] Anna Schecter, “Scandal Inside the Peace Corps,” ABC News: 20/20, January 14, 2011.
[3] Anna Schecter, “Scandal Inside the Peace Corps,” ABC News: 20/20, January 14, 2011.
[4] House, Peace Corps at 50, 112th Cong., 1st sess., 2011, Serial No. 112–16, http://archives.republicans.foreignaffairs.house.gov/112/66292.pdf (accessed September 5, 2014).
[5] Congress, Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act, 112th Cong., 1st sess., 2011, S. 1280, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s1280enr/pdf/BILLS-112s1280enr.pdf (accessed September 5, 2014).
[6] Incite! Women of Color Against Violence, Color of Violence: The Incite! Anthology (Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2006); Anne McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (New York: Routledge, 1995); Andrea Smith, Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide (Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2005).
[7] Bonnie Thornton Dill and Ruth Enid Zambrana, Race, Class, and Gender in Theory, Policy, and Practice (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009), 113.
[8] Mari Matsuda, “Beside My Sister, Facing the Enemy: Legal Theory Out of Coalition,” Stanford Law Review 43, no. 6 (1991): 1183–192.
[9] Radha S. Hegde, “A View From Elsewhere: Locating Difference and a Politics of Representation From a Transnational Feminist Perspective,” Communication Theory 8, no. 3 (1998): 283.
[10] Dean Spade, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law (Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2011), 22.
[11] Cynthia Enloe, Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007); Jasbir Puar, Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007); Michael A. Messner, “The Masculinity of the Governator: Muscle and Compassion in American Politics,” Gender & Society 21, no. 4 (2007): 461–80.
[12] Hamilton Carroll, Affirmative Reaction: New Formations of White Masculinity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011), 9.
[13] Raka Shome, “Postcolonial Interventions in the Rhetorical Canon: An ‘Other’ View,” Communication Theory 6, no. 1 (1996): 40–59.
[14] Carole Pateman, “Feminist Critiques of the Public/Private Dichotomy,” in Public and Private in Social Life, ed. Stanley I. Benn and Gerald F. Gaus (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983), 281–303; Kyra Pearson, “The Trouble with Aileen Wuornos, Feminism's ‘First Serial Killer,’” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 4, no. 3 (2007): 256–75; Joan Williams, Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do About It (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
[15] Martha R. Burt, “Cultural Myths and Supports for Rape,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 38, no. 2 (1980): 217–30.
[16] Sharon Marcus, “Fighting Bodies, Fighting Words: A Theory and Politics of Rape Prevention,” in Feminists Theorize the Political, ed. Judith Butler and Joan Wallach Scott (New York: Routledge, 1992), 385–403.
[17] Lisa McLaughlin, “Beyond ‘Separate Spheres': Feminism and the Cultural Studies/Political Economy Debate,” Journal of Communication Inquiry 23, no. 4 (1999): 327–54.
[18] J. K. Gibson-Graham, The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996), 81.
[19] Leti Volpp, “Feminism Versus Multiculturalism,” in Domestic Violence at the Margins: Readings on Race, Class, Gender, and Culture, ed. Natalie J. Sokoloff and Christina Pratt (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007), 41.
[20] Nirmal Puwar, Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place (New York: Berg, 2004), 6.
[21] Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (New York: Routledge, 2008), 4.
[22] Raka Shome and Radha Hegde, “Postcolonial Approaches to Communication: Charting Terrain, Engaging the Intersections,” Communication Theory 12, no. 3 (2002): 249–70; Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003); Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Random House, 1978); Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” in Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, ed. Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 271–313.
[23] Achille Mbembe, On the Postcolony (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001), 2.
[24] This quote and the following two are from Casey Kelly, “Neocolonialism and the Global Prison in National Geographic's Locked Up Abroad,” Critical Studies in Media Communication 29, no. 4 (2012): 340.
[25] Jackson Katz, The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2006), 133.
[26] Kent A. Ono, Contemporary Media Culture and the Remnants of a Colonial Past (New York: Peter Lang, 2009).
[27] Jenna N. Hanchey, “Constructing ‘American Exceptionalism’: Peace Corps Volunteer Discourses of Race, Gender, and Empowerment,” in Volunteering and Communication Volume II: Studies in International and Intercultural Contexts, ed. Michael W. Kramer, Laurie K. Lewis, and Loril M. Gossett (New York: Peter Lang, forthcoming); Andrew Rojecki, “Rhetorical Alchemy: American Exceptionalism and the War on Terror,” Political Communication 25 (2008): 67–88.
[28] Dana Cloud, “‘To Veil the Threat of Terror’: Afghan Women and the < Clash of Civilizations > in the Imagery of the US War on Terrorism,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 90, no. 3 (2004): 285–306.
[29] Lynn M. Phillips, Flirting with Danger: Young Women's Reflections on Sexuality and Domination (New York: New York University Press, 2000).
[30] Helen Benedict, Virgin or Vamp: How the Press Covers Sex Crimes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); Patricia J. Williams, “Race and Rights,” in Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader, ed. Les Back and John Solomon (New York: Routledge, 2009), 493–502.
[31] A. Cheree Carlson, “‘You Know It When You See It’: The Rhetorical Hierarchy of Race and Gender in Rhinelander v. Rhinelander,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 85, no. 2 (1999): 111; Patricia Hill Collins, Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism (New York: Routledge, 2005); Hillary Harris, “Failing ‘White Woman’: Interrogating the Performance of Respectability,” Theatre Journal 52, no. 2 (2000): 183–209.
[32] Jan Crawford, “Peace Corps Volunteers Detail Sexual Assaults,” CBS Evening News, May 11, 2011, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-20062026.html (accessed September 5, 2014).
[33] House, Peace Corps at 50, 112th Cong., 1st sess., 2011, Serial No. 112–16, http://archives.republicans.foreignaffairs.house.gov/112/66292.pdf.
[34] Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Ex-Peace Corps Volunteers Speak Out on Rape,” The New York Times, May 11, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/us/11corps.html?_r=2&ref=opinionhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/us/politics/12corps.html?ref=opinionhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/opinion/14tolentino.html (accessed September 5, 2014).
[35] Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Ex-Peace Corps Volunteers Speak Out on Rape,” The New York Times, May 11, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/us/11corps.html?_r=2&ref=opinionhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/us/politics/12corps.html?ref=opinionhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/opinion/14tolentino.html (accessed September 5, 2014).
[36] Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Ex-Peace Corps Volunteers Speak Out on Rape,” The New York Times, May 11, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/us/11corps.html?_r=2&ref=opinionhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/us/politics/12corps.html?ref=opinionhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/opinion/14tolentino.html (accessed September 5, 2014).
[37] Casey Frazee, “Peace Corps Volunteer Speaks Out About Lacking Sexual Assault Response,” First Response Action, May 9, 2011, http://firstresponseaction.blogspot.com/2011/05/changeorg-blog-by-casey-frazee.html (accessed September 5, 2014).
[38] Schecter, “Scandal.”
[39] Lisa Rein, “Peace Corps Chief Expresses Regret for Sexual Assaults on Young Volunteers,” The Washington Post, May 11, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/peace-corps-chief-expresses-regret-for-sexual-assaults-experienced-by-young-volunteers/2011/05/11/AFjrCitG_story.html (accessed September 5, 2014).
[40] House, Peace Corps, 11.
[41] Schecter, “Scandal.”
[42] Casey Kelly, “Neocolonialism and the Global Prison in National Geographic's Locked Up Abroad,” Critical Studies in Media Communication 29, no. 4 (2012): 331–47; Mark P. Orbe, “Representations of Race in Reality TV: Watch and Discuss,” Critical Studies in Media Communication 25, no. 4 (2008): 345–52.
[43] House, Peace Corps, 28.
[44] Schecter, “Scandal.”
[45] Schecter, “Scandal.”
[46] Schecter, “Scandal.”
[47] Schecter, “Scandal.”
[48] Schecter, “Scandal.”
[49] All three quotes from Clint Henderson, “Protecting Peace Corps Volunteers,” Fox News: Happening Now, November 21, 2011, http://video.foxnews.com/v/1287883755001/protecting-peace-corps-volunteers/ (accessed September 5, 2014).
[50] House, Peace Corps, 17.
[51] Stolberg, “Ex-Peace Corps.”
[52] House, Peace Corps, 28.
[53] Angela M. Hill and Randy Kreider, “Obama Signs Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act,” ABC News: The Blotter, November 21, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/obama-sign-kate-puzey-peace-corps-volunteer-protection/story?id=14998236#.TuGV1nPbfy6 (accessed September 5, 2014).
[54] House, Peace Corps, 19.
[55] House, Peace Corps, 17.
[56] Maureen P. Hogan & Timothy Pursell, “The ‘Real Alaskan’: Nostalgia and Rural Masculinity in the ‘Last Frontier,’” Men and Masculinities 11, no. 1 (2008): 63–85; Richard Phillips, Mapping Men and Empire: A Geography of Adventure (New York: Routledge, 1997).
[57] Schecter, “Scandal.”
[58] Karestan Koenen, quoted in Anna Schecter, “Professor Kept Her Secret Until ‘20/20’ Report on Assaults Against Peace Corps Women,” ABC News: The Blotter, May 9, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/raped-peace-corps-volunteer/story?id=13537674 (accessed September 5, 2014).
[59] Rein, “Peace Corps Chief.”
[60] House, Peace Corps, 21.
[61] Pearson, “Trouble,” 257.
[62] Carine M. Mardorossian, “Toward a New Feminist Theory of Rape,” Signs 27, no. 3 (2002): 771.
[63] Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” in Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, ed. Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1991), 58.
[64] Kate Lockwood Harris, “Show Them a Good Time: Organizing the Intersections of Sexual Violence,” Management Communication Quarterly 27, no. 4 (2013): 568–95.
[65] Kate Lockwood Harris, Kellie E. Palazzolo, and Matthew W. Savage, “‘I'm Not Sexist, but … ’: How Ideological Dilemmas Reinforce Sexism in Talk About Intimate Partner Violence,” Discourse & Society 23, no. 6 (2012): 643–56.
[66] Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman, All You Need is Love: The Peace Corps and the Spirit of the 1960s (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), 1.
[67] Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman, All You Need is Love: The Peace Corps and the Spirit of the 1960s (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), 6.
[68] Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman, All You Need is Love: The Peace Corps and the Spirit of the 1960s (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), 3, 5.
[69] Fritz Fischer, Making Them Like Us: Peace Corps Volunteers in the 1960s (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1998), 4.
[70] Cobbs-Hoffman, All You Need is Love, 1.
[71] Military analyses could draw together terms we develop with T. S. Nelson, For Love of Country: Confronting Rape and Sexual Harassment in the US Military (New York: Hawthorne Press, 2002); Enloe, Globalization.
[72] Avtar Brah and Ann Phoenix, “Ain't I a Woman? Revisiting intersectionality,” Journal of International Women's Studies 5, no. 3 (2004): 83.