Ana Maskalan: "I Didn't Ask for It". Women of Former Yugoslavia Vs. The Invisibility of Rape

Simone De Beauvoir: A Toolkit for the 21st Century

Online initiative "I Didn't Ask for It" (#nisamtrazila) started in January 2021 in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia, motivated by a public confession of a young Serbian actress of being raped by a well-known Belgrade drama pedagogue. In today's lecture, Ana Maskalan offers a feminist analysis of the evolution of the above-mentioned initiative (followed by a silencing backlash) and of the socio-cultural and political context that makes it unique. How can we understand this social movement, drawing on Simone de Beauvoir's understanding of the myth of femininity and the ideas of complicity, solidarity, violence, and of sex and sexual autonomy?

The discussion is moderated by Nidesh Lawtoo. This podcast is hosted by Ashika Singh and Liesbeth Schoonheim

Reading more...

Simone de Beauvoir.. 2011 [1949]. The Second Sex. Translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevalier. New York: Vintage Books.

Simone de Beauvoir. 2011 [1959]. “Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome.” In Feminist Writings, edited by Margaret A. Simons and Marybeth Timmermann, translated by Bernard Frechtman, 114–25. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Simone de Beauvoir. 2012 [1962]. “Preface to Djamila Boupacha.” In Political Writings, edited by Margaret Simons and Marybeth Timmermann, translated by Marybeth Timmermann, 272–82. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.