NCJ Number
161173
Journal
Law and Social Inquiry Volume: 19 Issue: 4 Dated: (Fall 1994) Pages: 891- 922
Date Published
1994
Length
32 pages
Annotation
Ways in which feminist law reform can serve all women are explored with respect to issues related to sexual assault against adult and juvenile females with developmental disabilities.
Abstract
The concept of the difference impasse is presented as a theoretical tool for understanding how women are positioned in law differently and unequally in relation to each other. The analysis also explores how, within the consent framework of a rape trial, competing social narratives or subtexts about race, class, gender, and disability circulate in the courtroom. The discussion also focuses on the issue of pity in rape trials, suggests how pity might be replaced with respect, and reviews the complexity of issues involved in changing the consent and pity frameworks in the context of sexual violence. The analysis concludes by arguing that focusing on interlocking systems of domination and on the complicity of feminist law reformers in maintaining categories of women in law and law reform is a useful approach for these reformers. It notes that the stories of women with disabilities must be told as stories of injustice, not as stories of vulnerability. Footnotes