An existential radical feminist account of rape: dominance and objectification.

Abstract

Radical feminism explains rape as an act of dominance based on the sexual objectification of women. The rise of a Foucauldian post-structural account of power has led to explaining dominance through vulnerability and attributing agency to the position of being sexually objectified. This article uses the subject of existentialism to reinstate the dominance of the rapist and the structural constraint of being sexually objectified. An existential account of choice in consciousness, found in the narrative construction of identity, can be combined with the radical feminist structural explanation of rape. The structure in which women are sexually objectified provides rationalisations to rape. The theory is developed through a reinterpretation of the psychosocial case studies of Gadd and Jefferson, rejecting their supposition of finding vulnerability in the rapist and their claim to find agency in the rape victim. The structural critique of sexual objectification is reinstated through the introduction of an existential subject.