RAPE CULTURE: RETHINKING DANGER, POWER, SEX AND FEMINIST FRAMINGS

Catalog description

Nothing is simple, incontrovertible or 'cool' in 'rape culture.' The subject, act and discourse surrounding rape is embedded in culture and confounded by culture: by opinions, standpoints, simplistic arguments and personal and political interests. Feminist framings of 'rape culture' invite different inquiry: into mythology, ideology, theory and alternative interpretations of bodies in a given context. Famed feminist Andrea Dworkin interrogates rape culture's center: powers practically guaranteed, moreover "exercised… [and] protected… by religion … by universities … [even] by [poets and artists], the unacknowledged legislators of the world." This course utilizes multiple approaches to study and interrogate 'rape culture,' each of which illuminates this inherently dark subject in new light.