Women and violence: A theory of judgment

Abstract

This chapter deals with one particular problem about women and violence: rape. My thesis is that our moral notions of violence have changed dramatically in history and that this is apparent if we look back at the ways in which many stories from literature have presented the question of rape. I also argue that feminism has contributed to the moral transformation of the actions of rape, and I point out the ways in which different feminist techniques have allowed the question of violence in rape to be disclosed and understood as a moral harm. In the third part of the article I argue that although feminism has contributed a great deal in the change of our perceptions, the cultural revolution brought by certain feminist groups ended up addressing certain practices that are oppressive to women as acceptable because of so called cultural differences. In order to move out of the dilemma, I propose to use my theory of reflective judgment to provide the grounds for understanding rape as a crime through different and particular practices analyzed through the examples of stories (mainly provided with movies). © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.