Rape and Social Death
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Date
2021-04
Authors
Mann, Bonnie
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sage
Abstract
Rape that does not involve life-threatening physical violence, is committed by someone
known to the victim, and is not reported to law enforcement (called, here, commonplace rape)
raises two questions: “Why didn’t she fight back or run away?” and “Why didn’t she say
anything at the time?” Recently, research on “tonic immobility,” based on animal predation
studies, has provided a physiological explanation for experiences of immobilization during
sexual assault. The juxtaposition of animal predation with commonplace sexual assault raises the
question: How is it that a response reserved, in animals, for lethal, no-way-out scenarios is
present in modes of violation where the victim does not report fear of death or extreme physical
harm? Neither does this research help explain why women fail to report. This philosophical
exploration of the meaning of tonic immobility in sexual assault helps to justify the juxtaposition
of life-or-death scenarios with less-than-life-threatening violation, and sheds light on the reason
for women’s silence after sexual assault. Rape is accompanied by deep historical meanings that
can be encapsulated in the notion of “social death,” associated in the U.S. with colonial conquest,
enslavement, and impoverishment. The specter of social death haunts commonplace rape,
producing life or death responses.
Description
32 pages
Keywords
rape, sexual assault, tonic immobility, freeze response, social death
Citation
Mann B. Rape and social death. Feminist Theory. April 2021. doi:10.1177/14647001211012940