#MeToo? Legal Discourse and Everyday Responses to Sexual Violence

Alison Gash, Ryan Harding
2018 Laws  
Legal consciousness scholars identify the ways in which law is referenced to authorize, define and evaluate behaviors and choices that occur far outside any formal legal framework. They define legality as the "meanings, sources of authority, and cultural practices that are commonly recognized as legal, regardless of who employs them or for what ends." We use the idea of legality to argue that, in matters of sexual assault and rape, the limits of the law extend beyond the courtroom. Rather than
more » ... imply influencing or guiding only those who are willing to consult the law in their efforts to seek justice, laws and legal discourse have the potential to frame and constrain any attempt to discuss experiences of sexual violence. #MeToo and other forms of "consciousness-raising" for sexual violence highlight the limiting effects of law and legal discourse on public discussion of sexual violence. We find that, paradoxically, in the case of sexual violence law has the capacity to undermine the goals and benefits of consciousness-raising approaches, privatizing the experience of sexual assault and silencing its victims. The sexual assault hotline managed by RAINN (Rape and Incest National Network) increased by 25 percent in November from one year prior and by 30 percent in December from the same time the previous year (Lambert 2018). Laws 2018, 7, 21 3 of 24 settings. When we limit the study of law to these doctrines and institutions we miss an opportunity to identify how law both constructs and is constructed by its everyday context (Engel 1995; Ewick and Silbey 1998; Gash and Raiskin 2016) . Whether it is "the law of the check-out line" (Engel 1995, p. 125), how we navigate traffic, or the ways we work through disagreements or debates with colleagues, family or friends, our most routine behaviors and transactions are, in part, governed by approximations or interpretations of legal concepts, norms and procedures. Scholars have developed a framework for understanding how "our social roles and statuses, our relationships, our obligations, prerogatives, and responsibilities, our identities, and our behaviors bear
doi:10.3390/laws7020021 fatcat:s2rr2hyn4febde5gdulfyge3zq