“Fighting Bodies, Fighting Words: A Theory and Politics of Rape Prevention” by Sharon Marcus

“Fighting Bodies, Fighting Words” by Sharon Marcus works to put self-defense at the forefront of women’s defense against rape. She emphasizes that rape is based on the idea that women are inherently violable. She believes that if women are able to become subjects of violence in the same way men are, they can combat and perhaps prevent rape. Marcus’s stance reemphasizes the idea that marginalized people have to protect themselves from people and a culture that are out to destroy them. That’s what self-defense is whether we want it to be or not. Marcus introduces the idea that women are “subjects of fear” and “objects of violence”, while men are “subjects of violence.” Women are on the receiving end of violence perpetrated by men, and women’s action is defined by fear. The “rape script” is the construction of rape culture through words and language, it can be revised. For a long time, I had been resistant to self-defense as a means of preventing rape. I felt like the onus of rape prevention should not be on me because I was a victim. Then I realized that the society I live in is not interested in rape prevention, and I don’t want ideological purity at the cost of security. Telling people not to rape isn’t enough because our culture teaches that there is power and wealth to be gained from exploiting the bodies of others and it’s in our nature to extract it. Until there is a major shift in our society, in which our bodies are no longer attached to our value, we will never know peace. One issue I do have with Marcus’s piece is it places women in a position of perpetual victimhood and fails to assess how women can reproduce violence in their relationships with one another and children.

Marcus, Sharon. “Fighting Bodies, Fighting Words: A Theory and Politics of Rape Prevention.” Feminists Theorize the Political, Routledge, 1992, 385–403.