Gender overdetermination and resistance: The case of criminalised women

Susan Sered; Maureen Norton-Hawk

doi:10.1177/1464700111417675

Gender overdetermination and resistance: The case of criminalised women

Susan Sered, Maureen Norton-Hawk

Suffolk University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

This article explores the notion of gender overdetermination in relation to a community of criminalised women in Massachusetts. Re-examining classic writings on overdetermination by Louis Althusser, Sigmund Freud, Frantz Fanon and Jean-Paul Sartre, we query the notion of gender overdetermination and posit it as an effective lens for thinking about the persistence of gender as a social construct. The combination of the structural processes of overdetermination with the discursive and ideological power of overdetermination complicates and reduces possibilities and effectiveness of sustained acts of resistance. The criminalised women of our study permanently inhabit a space in which aetiology, practice, discipline and interpretation are all hyper-gendered, meaning that acts of resistance are construed as more evidence of inescapable and essential gender identity.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	317-333
Number of pages	17
Journal	Feminist Theory
Volume	12
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1464700111417675
State	Published - Dec 2011
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This project has been approved by Suffolk University IRB, Massachusetts Board of Parole, and by directors of the co-operating facilities. Funding was provided by a Suffolk University summer research stipend and the Center for Women's Health and Human Rights. Ashley Terhune, Ellesse Akre, and Joanna Prager are thanked for their contributions to this project.

Funding

This project has been approved by Suffolk University IRB, Massachusetts Board of Parole, and by directors of the co-operating facilities. Funding was provided by a Suffolk University summer research stipend and the Center for Women's Health and Human Rights. Ashley Terhune, Ellesse Akre, and Joanna Prager are thanked for their contributions to this project.

Funders	Funder number
Suffolk University
Center for Women's Health and Human Rights

Keywords

Massachusetts
criminalisation
gender
overdetermination
women in penal system

Access to Document

10.1177/1464700111417675

Cite this

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Gender overdetermination and resistance: The case of criminalised women

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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