Ruling Passions: Sexual Violence, Reputation and the Law - Softcover

LEES

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0335196136 ISBN 13: 9780335196135

Publisher: Open University Press, 1997

Synopsis

Ruling Passions explores the disciplinary processes which constrict women's lives with particular reference to sexual reputation. Drawing on the work of Foucault, Sue Lees explores the way that power functions as a form of self surveillance, and operates through all kinds of institutional and social practices which serve to legitimate male violence.

Based on three research projects, involving interviews and group discussions with adolescents, the analysis of court transcripts of rape and murder trials, and the monitoring of rape trials undertaken for a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, Sue Lees makes an innovative use of the method of discourse analysis to analyse how ideas and social practices function as a system of power and domination. Issues range from the criteria used to determine reputation in adolescence and credibility in rape trials to the representation of the body as a spectacle in trials and the link between marital rape and murder.

About this title

Review

"...should be of practical use to schools and individual teachers to reflect on theircurrent practices and to identify ways forward." - Journal of Teacher Development "...a surprisingly easy read...focuses attention on the key issues weare stillfacing." - Education Review "The aim of the researchers is to provide an account of teachers' voices and their actions which will be of practical use to schools as a resource for reviewing and developing their policies and practice. In this theyhave succeeded admirably." - Educational Management and Administration "...the many useful suggestions made in this book on how to take practice forward should make a positive contributionto helping schools to cope with change successfully." - Educational Management & Administration

About the Author

Sue Lees is Professor of Women's Studies at the University of North London. Her publications include Losing Out (Unwins 1986), Sugar and Spice: Sexuality and Adolescent Girls (Penguin 1993), and Carnal Knowledge (Hamish Hamilton 1996). She has acted as consultant to many TV documentaries, including most recently Channel 4 Dispatches, Male Rape (1995) and Getting Away with Rape which won the Royal Television Award for the best home documentary of 1994. She was a founder member of the Women's Studies Network Association of which she was joint Chair from 1988-91 and is on the editorial board of the journal Gender and Education and book series Gender and Society.

Edition details

• Publisher: Open University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0335196136
• ISBN 13: 9780335196135
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224