Women, Evil, and Grey Zones

Abstract

Gray zones, which develop wherever oppression is severe and lasting, are inhabited by victims of evil who become complicit in perpetrating on others the evils that threaten to engulf themselves. Women, who have inhabited many gray zones, present challenges for feminist theorists, who have long struggled with how resistance is possible under coercive institutions. Building on Primo Levi's reflections on the gray zone in Nazi death camps and ghettos, this essay argues that resistance is sometimes possible, although outsiders are rarely, if ever, in a position to judge when. It also raises questions about the adequacy of ordinary moral concepts to mark the distinctions that would be helpful for thinking about how to respond in a gray zone.

Abused by the Patriarchy: Male Victims, Masculinity, “Honor”-Based Abuse and Forced Marriages

“…Nevertheless, the evidence suggested that some of the mothers acted—in L. Bates’s terminology—as “collaborators” (Type 2) against their sons, so one could hypothesize that these women were subjected to threats and coercion, nor afforded with the agency to go against their more powerful husbands. Women will make choices within particular contexts and this includes bowing down to patriarchal pressures or doing “patriarchy’s dirty work” (Card, 2000, p. 513). Some may have rationalized that challenging the established patriarchal order would be futile as well as dangerous because they themselves might have become targets—by “bargaining with patriarchy” they are at least granted a small share of power (Pope, 2012, p. 103; Kandiyoti, 1988).…”

Cultural policy by proxy: Internet-based Cultural Consumption as a copygray zone

“…Nevertheless, it is illustrative and informative to learn from an extreme case where the balance between obligations and rights was so fundamentally disrupted. The perspective has been found useful in diverse areas such as feminist studies (Card 2000), post-racial studies (Fordham 2010) and bullying in public life (Reid 2008). In the current study, certain aspects of the gray zone have been appropriated through 'the copygray zone' which characterizes that practices were neither ethical principles nor legal regulation supplies adequate guidance.…”