New Versions of Victims
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New Versions of Victims by Sharon Lamb
It is increasingly difficult to use the word victim these days without facing either ridicule for crying victim or criticism for supposed harshness toward those traumatized. Some deny the possibility of recovering repressed memories of abuse, or consider date rape an invention of whining college students. At the opposite extreme, others contend that women who experience abuse are survivors likely destined to be psychically wounded for life. While the debates rage between victims' rights advocates and backlash authors, the contributors to New Versions of Victims collectively argue that we must move beyond these polarizations to examine the victim as a socially constructed term and to explore, in nuanced terms, why we see victims the way we do. Must one have been subject to extreme or prolonged suffering to merit designation as a victim? How are we to explain rape victims who seemingly get over their experience with no lingering emotional scars? Resisting the reductive oversimplifications of the polemicists, the contributors to New Versions of Victims critique exaggerated claims by victim advocates about the harm of victimization while simultaneously taking on the reactionary boilerplate of writers such as Katie Roiphe and Camille Paglia and offering further strategies for countering the backlash. Written in clear, accessible language, New Versions of Victims offers a critical analysis of popular debates about victimization that will be applicable to both practice and theory.
"Written in clear, accessible language..New Versions of Victims offers a critical analysis of popular debates about victimization that will be applicable to both practice and theory." * Adolescence *
"Challenges feminists, the therapy community and the academic community to think about the meanings of abuse to the abused and to the culture at large. . . . A valuable contribution to feminist discourse" * Journal of Moral Education *
"New Versions of Victims: Feminists Struggle with the Concept contribute[s] to the project of moving feminist theory and practice beyond reliance, implicit or explicit, on the abstract dualisms of liberal thinking." * Hypatia *
"Timely contribution to the theorization of rape and helps delineate areas in need of further analysis. [Lamb] also address[es] the issue from radically different perspectives and methodologies...particularly noteworthy." * SIGNS *
"Challenges feminists, the therapy community and the academic community to think about the meanings of abuse to the abused and to the culture at large. . . . A valuable contribution to feminist discourse" * Journal of Moral Education *
"New Versions of Victims: Feminists Struggle with the Concept contribute[s] to the project of moving feminist theory and practice beyond reliance, implicit or explicit, on the abstract dualisms of liberal thinking." * Hypatia *
"Timely contribution to the theorization of rape and helps delineate areas in need of further analysis. [Lamb] also address[es] the issue from radically different perspectives and methodologies...particularly noteworthy." * SIGNS *
Sharon Lamb is Associate Professor of Psychology at St. Michael's College in Colchester, Vermont. She is the author of The Trouble With Blame: Victims, Perpetrators, and Responsibility.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780814751534 |
| ISBN 10 | 0814751539 |
| Title | New Versions of Victims |
| Author | Sharon Lamb |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | New York University Press |
| Year published | 1999-06-01 |
| Number of pages | 192 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |