Presumed Intimacies: Public Health and Neoliberal Approaches to “Addressing” Sexual Violence in the Caribbean

• In Event: Feminist Struggles in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

The World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization provide a blueprint for preventing and addressing privatized violence against women by suggesting a public health approach. These guides presume transnational intimacies as part of the intervention process, while simultaneously asking Caribbean women to take personal responsibility for their mental and physical care and thereby becoming its own form of violence. This paper argues that women’s words, experiences, and knowledge must be at the center of anti-violence and sex education programs, and I will draw on historic and contemporary examples of grassroots groups that seek gender justice.

Presenter

• Barbara Shaw, Allegheny College