„I Didn't Ask for It": Balkan women vs. the invisibility of rape

Maskalan, Ana (2024) „I Didn't Ask for It": Balkan women vs. the invisibility of rape. In: Beauvoir and politics: a toolkit. Routledge, New York, pp. 186-210. ISBN 978-1-032-43191-8 (pbk), 978-1-032-43192-5 (hbk), 978-1-003-36608-9 (ebk)

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Abstract

IN ENGLISH: Online initiative "I Didn't Ask for It" (#nisamtrazila) started in January 2021, motivated by a public confession of a young Serbian actress of being raped by a well-known Belgrade drama pedagogue. Soon joined by her female colleagues and other women, journalists, musicians, students, doctors and politicians, an online platform was opened where thousands of women of former Yugoslavia took the opportunity to describe and report the various forms of sexual abuse to which they were exposed during their childhood, education and employment and whose perpetrators were person(s) they knew and looked up to. As a belated Balkan version of the “Me Too” movement, “I Didn’t Ask for It” initiative inherited a number of its attributes while displaying some new ones, dependent on the specific socio-cultural and political context and heritage of the region. The latter was grounded in the complex permeation of the socialist attitude towards women's rights and sexual violence, the unresolved traumas of mass wartime rapes and the contemporary experience of the threat to “Balkan masculinity”. “I Didn’t ask for it” did not only call for solidarity in the fight against violence, but by its very name suggested the necessity of addressing the epistemic (testimonial and hermeneutical) injustice to which women victims of sexual violence are exposed, both given the institutional lack of confidence in the truth of their claims and the individual’s inability to understand their own experiences and adversities. Women behind the initiative thus correctly assumed that the ensuing public reaction would be based on the accusation that women victims themselves were responsible and willing participants in the act of sexual violence, making their struggle to raise awareness of the phenomenon of sexual violence, unprecedented in former Yugoslav context, all the more important. In this chapter I will offer a philosophical-feminist analysis of the evolution of the above-mentioned initiative (followed by a silencing backlash) and of the socio-cultural and political context that made it unique. I will concentrate in more detail on several aspects that seem characteristic of “I Didn’t Ask for It” that I consider to be closely related to the socio-cultural and political context of the region. These are the victims’ resignation and need for anonymity, as well as the fierce backlash (response) of sections of the public to the actions of the initiative itself and to its leaders. Although I am aware that resignation, anonymity, and backlash can be recognized in the "MeToo” movement as well, I do not consider them to be its dominant features; nor do I understand them to be connected to the same social phenomena. As a philosophical point of departure, I will utilize Simone de Beauvoir’s theoretical framework, especially her understanding of the myth of femininity and the ideas of complicity, solidarity, violence, and of sex and sexual autonomy. Beauvoir’s elaboration of the concept of the Other serves here as an ontological foundation of the epistemic problem of not recognizing another’s experience, discussed through Miranda Fricker’s theory of epistemic injustice, as well as an explanation of why victimization in the case of rape victims does not stop at the sole act of rape. --------------- IN CROATIAN: Online inicijativa "Nisam tražila" (#nisamtrazila) pokrenuta je u siječnju 2021., potaknuta javnim svjedočenjem mlade srpske glumice da ju je silovao poznati beogradski dramski pedagog. Ubrzo su joj se pridružile njezine glumačke kolegice i druge žene, novinarke, glazbenice, studentice, liječnice i političarke te je otvorena online platforma koju su tisuće žena bivše Jugoslavije iskoristile kako bi opisale i prijavile različite oblike seksualnog zlostavljanja kojima su bile izložene tijekom djetinjstva, školovanja i zaposlenja, a čiji su počinitelji bile osobe koje su poznavale i kojima su se divile. Kao zakašnjela balkanska inačica “Me Too” pokreta, inicijativa “Nisam tražila” naslijedila je niz njegovih osobina pokazavši pritom neke sasvim nove, ovisne o specifičnom sociokulturnom i političkom kontekstu i nasljeđu regije. Potonje je utemeljeno u kompleksnom prožimanju socijalističkog stava prema ženskim pravima i seksualnom nasilju, nerazriješenim traumama masovnih ratnih silovanja i suvremenom iskustvu prijetnje “balkanskom maskulinitetu”. Inicijativa “Nisam tražila'' nije samo pozvala na solidarnost u borbi protiv nasilja, već je samim nazivom sugerirala nužnost suočavanja s epistemičkom (testimonijalnom i hermeneutičkom) nepravdom kojoj su izložene žene žrtve seksualnog nasilja, kako s obzirom na institucionalni nedostatak povjerenja u istinitost njihovih tvrdnji, tako i na individualnu nesposobnost razumijevanja vlastitih iskustava i nedaća. Žene koje stoje iza inicijative ispravno su pretpostavile da će reakcija javnosti na nju biti utemeljena na optužbi da su same žene žrtve bile odgovorne i voljne sudionice u činu seksualnog nasilja, čineći njihovu borbu za podizanje svijesti o fenomenu seksualnog nasilja, bez presedana u kontekstu bivše Jugoslavije, tim važnijom. U ovom ću poglavlju ponuditi filozofsko-feminističku analizu evolucije gore spomenute inicijative (praćene ušutkavajućim otporom) i društveno-kulturnog i političkog konteksta koji ju je učinio jedinstvenom. Detaljnije ću se usredotočiti na nekoliko aspekata koji se čine karakterističnima za “Nisam tražila” a koje određujem blisko vezanima uz društveno-kulturni i politički kontekst regije. Riječ je o rezigniranosti i potrebi za anonimnošću žrtava, kao i o oštrom otporu (odgovoru) dijela javnosti na djelovanje same inicijative i njezinih čelnica. Iako sam svjesna da se rezigniranost, anonimnost i otpor mogu prepoznati i u pokretu "Me Too", ne smatram ih njegovim dominantnim obilježjima, niti ih shvaćam povezanima s istim društvenim fenomenima. Kao filozofskim polazištem poslužit ću se teorijskim okvirom Simone de Beauvoir, posebice njezinim razumijevanjem mita o ženskosti te ideja suučesništva, solidarnosti, nasilja i seksa i seksualne autonomije. Beauvoirova elaboracija pojma Drugog ovdje služi kao ontološki temelj epistemološkog problema neprepoznavanja tuđeg iskustva (o kojem se govori kroz teoriju epistemičke nepravde Mirande Fricker) te kao objašnjenje zašto viktimizacija u slučaju žrtava silovanja ne prestaje samim činom silovanja.

Item Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	Language: English. - Tite in Croatian: "Nisam tražila": žene Balkana protiv nevidljivosti silovanja. - Book editors: Liesbeth Schoonheim, Karen Vintges.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	"I Didn't Ask for It" (#nisamtrazila), "Me Too", sexual abuse, Balkans, epistemic injustice, the Other ("Nisam tražila" (#nisamtrazila), "Me Too", seksualno zlostavljanje, Balkan, epistemička nepravda, Drugi)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
Depositing User:	Karolina
Date Deposited:	29 Nov 2023 09:38
Last Modified:	22 Jul 2024 12:46
URI:	http://idiprints.knjiznica.idi.hr/id/eprint/1108

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