Sexual Violence: A View From Below

• In Event: 3257 - Contemporary and Enduring Violence

Abstract

This paper will explore structural and banal violence from the perspective of sexual minorities [sex workers and LGBT groups] in India. Since 1990s the experiences of violence faced by sexual minorities has received attention through HIV/AIDS platforms, legal debates, social movement struggles as well as individual accounts. These accounts challenge commonplace understanding of violence as exceptional and complicate the understanding of pain, hurt and agency. By focusing on the ‘banality of violence’ on bodies that disrupt normative sexual order, this paper provides an intersectional approach to understanding sexual violence as well as calls for conceptualization of violence rooted in the experiences of marginalized groups.

Author

• Chaitanya Lakkimsetti, Texas A&M University