Introduction: Can We Live and Work Securely in Our Bodies? It's Time to Talk

Abstract

Faced with the dispiriting, malevolent reality of “Trump world,” many pundits have bemoaned what seems to be a dismantling of Martin Luther King's famed precept, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” At the same time, however, King’s ideal may be finding new life in the voices of the countless individuals who constitute the burgeoning movement to speak out, identify, and address the long-silenced and entrenched history of pervasive sexual misconduct perpetrated against them by men (and in some cases women) who have abused their power.¹ Power, itself, is a noxious aphrodisiac—one in which the means, the motive, and the cover-up of these acts supports a code of silence protecting many operating with impunity for an unconscionably long time. But even as individuals are speaking up, there is still so much more to say. Naming sexual abuse or harassment, as we all know, does not make it disappear.

Keywords:

• sexual harassment
• sexual abuse
• #Me Too movement
• power
• consent
• self objectification

Notes

1 Most recently, two prominent women have been accused of sexual abuse, resulting in questions about the #MeToo movement’s integrity. The first was Avital Ronell, a professor of German and Comparative Literature at New York University, who was suspended for allegedly harassing an advisee, Nimrod Reitman. The second was Asia Argento, who, according to a report in The New York Times, paid off a younger actor named Jimmy Bennett so that he would not go public with his allegation that she sexually abused him when he was a minor. If the allegations are true, then this underscores the point that #MeToo feminists have been making along—about the nature of power and the way it fosters abuse. Please note that I am writing mostly about women, rather than men (e.g., James Levine and Kevin Spacey), because the #MeToo movement has focused primarily on harassed or abused women.

2 The vast literature on women and their bodies is outside the scope of this paper. The reader is referred to the work of Baker-Pitts (2014); Baker-Pitts et al., (2015); Balsam (2012); Dimen (2011); Gilligan (2011); Halsted (2015); Ogden (2015); Orbach (2009); Petrucelli (2015); Sands (2003); Schoen (2015); and Zuckerman (2014), as well as many others.

3 Song written by Lestor Santly and Cliff Friend in 1924 and made popular by Dean Martin in 1949.

4 Jill Gentile was asked to be a guest contributor to this issue but did not participate in the conference.

5 Katie Gentile was asked to be a guest contributor to this issue but did not participate in the conference.

6 Naomi Snider is an invited contributor who did not present at the conference, but was invited to contribute to this issue.

7 Don Greif is an invited contributor who did not present at the conference, but was invited to contribute to this issue.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jean Petrucelli

Jean Petrucelli, Ph.D., is a director and cofounder of the Eating Disorders, Compulsions and Addictions Service (EDCAS); fellow; supervising analyst; teaching faculty; Conference Advisory Committee chair and founding director of the Eating, Disorders, Compulsions & Addictions certificate program at the William Alanson White Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She is an associate professor for New York University’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis; adjunct faculty, Institute of Contemporary Psychology; associate editor for Contemporary Psychoanalysis; editor of five books, including the winner of the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis 2016 Edited Book, Body-States: Interpersonal and Relational Perspectives on the Treatment of Eating Disorders (Routledge, 2015). Dr. Petrucelli specializes in the interpersonal treatment of eating disorders and addictions, lectures nationally and internationally, and is in private practice in New York City.