“We are sexual-violence survivors/allies”: Identity work and survivor politics

• In Event: 2229 - Section on Political Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Political Sociology Refereed Roundtable #14

Abstract

This ethnographic study explores how anti-sexual violence activists coordinate political action around the identity of the sexual assault survivor. Drawing on the theoretical framework of cultural interactionism (Lichterman and Eliasoph 2014), this study extends research on identity work in social movements by shifting attention to non-ascribed identities and asking: How do activists coordinate public political action around an identity that is private, invisible, and sensitive? The study draws on 20 months of participant-observation and fifteen semi-structured interviews with members of a sexual-violence survivor advocacy student organization. Members engaged in three forms of identity work. First, they facilitated the coming out of individuals as sexual assault survivors; Second, they constructed survivors as an identity among other identities, such as ethnic or sexual identities. Third, members constructed a group identity of “survivors and allies”. These forms of identity work mapped consistently into two separate styles of interaction. While the first two forms of identity work required the acknowledgment of one’s identity as a survivor or non-survivor, the latter one downplays the difference, creating tension between the three and requiring members to switch between them. The findings call for attention to non-ascribed identities that are increasingly at the center of social movements. Furthermore, the findings suggest that such identities may require simultaneous use of multiple forms of identity work, requiring more attention to the ways in which constructions of identities shapes identity work among activists.

Author

• Yael Findler, USC