Overview

A radical challenge to the ways anti-rape advocates work with the survivors of sexual assault What is ""victim advocacy"" when regulated by the government? Victim advocates have long served as the designated support people for survivors of sexual violence. But in the neoliberal era, advocates no longer work at independent collectives supporting survivors through whatever means necessary, but instead operate at rape crisis centers, government-funded agencies with strict policies on the uses of their funding. In this compelling book, Melinda Chen argues that pressures from governmental granting agencies onto rape crisis centers have compelled advocates to turn away from their responsibility of challenging intersectional violence and instead lean into normative interpretations of rape and survivorship, hurting the most marginalized of victims. Killing Radicalism demonstrates that even the most well-intentioned anti-rape activists can inadvertently harm survivors when they forgo an intersectional critique of the oppressive social and institutional structures around them. Through interviews with advocates from over 50 rape crisis centers, and drawing from her own experience as an advocate, Chen examines how neoliberalism affects anti-rape advocacy today. She shows that through everyday activities like grant writing or the compilation of survey data, advocates can inadvertently force victims out of the post-rape process through small-scale acts suggesting that they are not worthy victims. Chen asks advocates to reconsider their relationship to racial and other marginalized peoples' movements to reimagine a radical politics that can resist hegemonic and normative state powers. Ultimately, this book is a wake-up call for advocates and scholars to reexamine their approaches to anti-violence work and prioritize the needs of all survivors.

Full Product Details

9781479828234

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Reviews

""Killing Radicalism is a bold examination of how the anti-rape movement in the U.S. has been reshaped and constrained by neoliberalism, the nonprofit imperatives, and state regulation. Melinda Chen's work reveals how the promise of justice for survivors is often undermined by the very institutions meant to protect them, as funding structures and normative victim services silence radical visions of change. With sharp and timely critique, it exposes how advocates are caught between the needs of survivors and the demands of funders, becoming complicit in reproducing systemic violence, especially against marginalized communities. At once unsettling and urgent, Killing Radicalism challenges readers to confront the hidden violences of advocacy and to imagine anti-rape activism rooted not in compliance with hegemonic systems, but in true radical transformation."" - Xavier L. Guadalupe-Díaz, author of Transgressed: Intimate Partner Violence in Transgender Lives ""Killing Radicalism is a must-read in the current US political climate. Survivor services are facing historic budget cuts due to reduced government support and threats by the federal administration to withhold all funding if they so much as provide referrals for services to trans survivors. Chen's inspiring call for a redefinition of radicalism to effect social structural change could not be more timely."" - Claire M. Renzetti, co-editor of Adjudicating Campus Sexual Misconduct: Controversies and Challenges.

Author Information

Melinda Chen is Assistant Professor in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

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