Renaming Violence

Abstract

A gender analysis forces us to measure and define our sociological inquiries in ways that broaden categories of human experiences. In so doing, we are often forced to rename those experiences. In this analysis of violence, gender, and the Holocaust, we will look to the extra burden, in addition to race, that gender forced on women: rape, abortion, sexual victimization, pregnancy, childbirth, the killing of newborns, and decisions about separation from children. In this analysis, we will look to the ways in which gender forces us to revisit the meaning of violence through the sins of omission as well as commission, through a deepening of the understanding of public and private spheres of life, and to expand what we mean by victims, survivors, and resisters.

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