Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Continuum Thinking

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
#MeToo, Weinstein and Feminism

Abstract

This chapter uses Liz Kelly’s (Surviving Sexual Violence. Cambridge: Polity, 1988) theorisation of the continuum of sexual violence as a starting point to explore how feminists theorise the connections between different forms of male violence against women. It explores the challenges in translating feminist theory into media commentary, arguing that continuum thinking has been distorted in the backlash against #MeToo to suggest that feminists cannot distinguish between different kinds of violence. It argues that the wider understanding of “sexual assault and harassment” which #MeToo calls for and Kelly’s work advocates, conflicts with the emphasis on criminal justice in much feminist thinking as well as in media rape reporting. Matt Damon’s comments on #MeToo provide a lens through which to explore these issues and consider the role of men in mediating feminism.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The interview was on Popcorn with Peter Travers (ABC, 12 December 2017). Video and a partial transcript of the interview can be found here: https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/matt-damon-opens-harvey-weinstein-sexual-harassment-confidentiality/story?id=51792548. Accessed 24 April 2019.

References

  • Abcarian, Robin. 2018. She wanted to go slow; he wanted to go fast. She told the world. Is Aziz Ansari a victim or a perpetrator? Los Angeles Times, January 17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adur, Shweta M. and Shreyasi Jha. 2018. (Re)centering street harassment – an appraisal of safe cities global initiative in Delhi, India. Journal of Gender Studies 27 (1): 114–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alcoff, Linda Martín. 2018. Rape and Resistance: Understanding the Complexities of Sexual Violation. Cambridge & Medford: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anitha, Sundari and Gill, Aisha. 2009. Coercion, consent and the forced marriage debate in the UK. Feminist Legal Studies 17(2): 165–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banet-Weiser, Sarah. 2018. Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bates, Laura. 2014. Everyday Sexism. London: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bevacqua, Maria. 2000. Rape on the Public Agenda: Feminism and the Politics of Sexual Assault. Richmond: Northeastern University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyle, Karen. 2019. What’s in a name? Theorising the inter-relationships of gender and violence. Feminist Theory 20 (1): 19–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyle, Karen. Forthcoming. The sex of sexual violence. In Handbook of Gender and Violence, ed. Laura Shepherd. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brison, Susan. 2002. Aftermath: Violence and the Remaking of the Self. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brownmiller, Susan. 1975/1986. Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape. London: Pelican Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bumiller, Kristin. 2008. In an Abusive State: How Neoliberalism Appropriated the Feminist Movement Against Sexual Violence. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Burke, Tarana. n.d. The Inception. Me Too, https://metoomvmt.org/the-inception/. Accessed 2 April 2019.

  • Cameron, Deborah. 2017. Men behaving inappropriately. Language: A Feminist Guide (Blog). 4 November. https://debuk.wordpress.com/2017/11/04/men-behaving-inappropriately/. Accessed 20 May 2019.

  • Connell, R.W. 1995. Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, Sara. 2018. My ex was just #MeTooed. He had it coming. But it’s complicated. Los Angeles Times, 21 January.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Leon, Aya. 2018. In defense of Aziz Ansari’s mama: how toxic masculinity undermines mothers in rape culture. Mutha Magazine, 23 February. http://muthamagazine.com/2018/02/defense-aziz-ansaris-mama-toxic-masculinity-undermines-mothers-rape-culture/. Accessed 25 April 2019.

  • Estrich, Susan. 1987. Real Rape. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrow, Ronan. 2017. Harvey Weinstein’s army of spies. New Yorker, 6 November.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gavey, Nicola. 2005. Just Sex? The Cultural Scaffolding of Rape. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gay, Roxanne. ed. 2018. Not That Bad: Dispatches From Rape Culture. New York: Harper Perennial.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grant, Melissa Gira. 2017. The unsexy truth about harassment, reprinted in Where Freedom Starts: Sex, Power, Violence, #MeToo, A Verso Report, 145–150. New York, Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greer, Germaine. 2018. On Rape. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hindes, Sophie and Bianca Fileborn. 2019. “Girl power gone wrong” #MeToo, Aziz Ansari, and media reporting of (grey area) sexual violence. Feminist Media Studies. DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2019.1606843.

  • Kantor, Jodi and Megan Twohey. 2017. Harvey Weinstein paid off sexual harassment accusers for decades. New York Times, 5 October.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, Liz. 1988. Surviving Sexual Violence. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, Liz. 2012. Standing the test of time? reflections on the concept of the continuum of sexual violence. In: Handbook on Sexual Violence, eds. Jennifer M. Brown and Sandra L. Walklate, xvii–xxvi. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kilkenny, Katie. 2018. Ellen Barkin tweets “Never get into an elevator alone” with Terry Gilliam. Hollywood Reporter March 17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loughrey, Clarisse. 2018. David Schwimmer says comparing Al Franken with Harvey Weinstein was “terrible and horrifying mistake”; “we should not conflate all claims into one column of bad behaviour”. Independent, 11 April.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKinnon, Catharine. 1981/1987. Sex and violence: A perspective. In Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law, ed. Catharine MacKinnon, 85–92. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKinnon, Catharine. 2018. #MeToo has done what the law could not. New York Times, 4 February.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manne, Kate. 2018. Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, Jane. 2017. Anita Hill on Weinstein, Trump, and a watershed moment for sexual harassment allegations. New Yorker, 1 November.

    Google Scholar 

  • McRobbie, Angela. 2009. The Aftermath of Feminism. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mendes, Kaitlynn, Jessica Ringrose and Jessalynn Keller. 2019. Digital Feminist Activism: Girls and Women Fight Back Against Rape Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merrick, Jane. 2017. I won’t keep my silence: Michael Fallon lunged at me after our lunch, Guardian, 4 November.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moorti, Sujata. 2002. Color of Rape: Gender and Race in Television’s Public Spheres. Albany: State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mumford, Alys. 2017. Why there aren’t always two sides to every story. Engender Blog, 24 October. https://www.engender.org.uk/news/blog/why-there-arent-always-two-sides-to-every-story/. Accessed 20 May 2019.

  • Mumford, Gwilym. 2019. Mads Mikkelsen: “One word wrong and you’re a dead person”. Guardian, 25 April.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phipps, Alison. 2014. The Politics of the Body: Gender in a Neoliberal and Neoconservative Age. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powell, Anastasia, and Nicola Henry. 2017. Sexual Violence in a Digital Age. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Schuster, Dana. 2018. Oscars 2018: Will anyone talk to this man? New York Post, 4 March.

    Google Scholar 

  • Serisier, Tanya. 2018. Speaking Out: Feminism, Rape and Narrative Politics, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sexton, David. 2018. #MenToo. The Evening Standard, 26 January.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, Heather and Rowena Mason. 2017. Michael Fallon quits as defence secretary saying his behaviour has “fallen short”. Guardian, 1 November.

    Google Scholar 

  • Threadgould, Michelle. 2017. Harvey Weinstein allegations: it’s all about power, not sex. CNN, 6 October. https://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/06/opinions/harvey-weinstein-threadgould/index.html Accessed April 25 2019.

  • Vera-Gray, Fiona. 2016. Men’s Intrusion, Women’s Embodiment: A Critical Analysis of Street Harassment. London & New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walby, Sylvia, Jude Towers, Susie Balderston, Consuelo Corradi, Brian Francis, Markku Heiskanen, Karin Helweg-Larsen, Lut Mergaert, Philippa Olive, Emma Palmer, Heidi Stöckl and Sofia Strid. 2017. The Concept and Measurement of Violence Against Women and Men. Bristol: Policy Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Way, Katie. 2018. I went on a date with Aziz Ansari. It turned into the worst night of my life. Babe, 13 January. https://babe.net/2018/01/13/aziz-ansari-28355

  • Weinstein, Harvey (2017) Statement. New York Times, 5 October.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whisnant, Rebecca. 2017. Feminist perspectives on rape. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 Edition), ed. Edward N. Zalta. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/feminism-rape/. Accessed 1 August 2018.

  • Zoellner, Danielle. 2018. “You can’t charge a person with murder when they’ve only got a parking ticket”: Sharon Stone clams Harvey Weinstein – but risks #MeToo backlash as she warns against punishing all sexual predators the same way. Mail on Sunday, 27 January.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Humanities, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

    Karen Boyle

Authors
  1. Karen Boyle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen Boyle .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Boyle, K. (2019). Continuum Thinking. In: #MeToo, Weinstein and Feminism. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28243-1_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation