Gender, Power, and Violence

Angela J. Hattery, PhD, is professor and director of women and gender studies at George Mason University. She is the author of several books, including Intimate Partner Violence (R&L, 2008). Earl Smith, PhD, is emeritus professor of sociology and American Ethnic Studies at Wake Forest University. He is the author or editor of several books, including Race, Sport, and the American Dream. Both are the authors of Policing Black Bodies: How Black Lives Are Surveilled and How to Work for Change (R&L, 2018), African American Families Today: Myths and Realities (R&L, 2014), and Prisoner Reentry and Social Capital: The Long Road to Reintegration (R&L, 2010).

• PREFACEACKNOWLEDGMENTSCHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2: THEORY, HISTORY, AND TERMINOLOGY CHAPTER 3: FRATERNITIES CHAPTER 4: THE MILITARY CHAPTER 5: PRISONS CHAPTER 6: SPORTSWORLD CHAPTER 7: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH CHAPTER 8: HOLLYWOOD, WASHINGTON, AND THE #METOO MOVEMENT CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSIONS AND A CALL TO ACTION

Recommended: Hattery (George Mason Univ.) and Smith (Wake Forest Univ.) provide an accessible introduction to the problem of sexual violence in American culture. Their work focuses particularly on the role that institutions and the environments they construct play in the perpetuation of sexual violence in society, drawing on examples from fraternities, the Roman Catholic Church, and the military. For the authors, the institutions featured are classic totalizing establishments that allow gender-based violence to persist by sustaining sophisticated practices of complicity through time. In addition to their focus on institutional cultures, the authors discuss with equal clarity the interpersonal dimensions and individual responses to sexual violence within which the #MeToo movement has developed. Importantly, the volume concludes by providing practical pathways for addressing sexual violence. The authors suggest that readers focus on institutional responses, reminding them that these have much power to compel behavior and set norms. Institutions can be transformative, the authors argue, when they ensure that there are clear processes that identify sexual violence as transgressive in working and living environments—processes that hold perpetrators accountable.