Attending to vulnerability in sexual violence research

Abstract

Within research on sexual violence, womxn who have been raped are positioned as “vulnerable” participants, while researchers tend to occupy positions of “invulnerability”. Drawing on vulnerable moments from a research project which explored womxn's experiences of rape in South Africa, this paper proposes a (more) vulnerable engagement with narratives of rape. Through attending to how vulnerability is implicated in issues of silence and agency, shame, and my own failures to witness the experiences of my participants with care, I explore the epistemic and ethical possibilities of an affective approach to researching rape. This approach asks us, as researchers, to attend to the moments during our research in which we are affected, moved and disrupted.

Unsettling vulnerability: Queer and feminist interventions

“…In “Attending to Vulnerability in Sexual Violence Research” in South Africa, Helman (2023, this issue) reflects on the ways that womxn enact agency and resistance in sharing “their experiences of rape [which] are entangled in complex dynamics of shame–vulnerability–silence–agency” (p. 382). By exposing the researcher's own vulnerabilities, this article sets out a clear and brave example of how researchers may fail to witness and attend to their participants’ lived experiences and voices.…”

“…Pillay (2023, this issue), in the fourth article, draws on Anzaldúa's (2012/1987) queer feminist theory of Borderlands to reframe their intersecting vulnerabilities in terms of advantageous potential, through a personal narrative that starts with “becoming visible.” Following a similar path to Helman (2023, this issue) and Venäläinen (2023, this issue), they reflect on their own experiences, in the latter case, the intersectional experience of becoming a queer, South African of Indian descent “academic-activist” while doing a PhD. They offer an intervention that stems from “heightened reflexivity” about the “vulnerable advantages” that exist because of, rather than in spite of, vulnerable disadvantages based on their race and sexuality.…”