Voices from Liminal Spaces: Narratives of Unacknowledged Rape
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University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Electronic Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 2013 Voices From Liminal Spaces: Narratives of Unacknowledged Rape Dusty Jane Johnstone University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd Recommended Citation Johnstone, Dusty Jane, "Voices From Liminal Spaces: Narratives of Unacknowledged Rape" (2013). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4947. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/4947 This online database contains the full-text of PhD dissertations and Masters’ theses of University of Windsor students from 1954 forward. These documents are made available for personal study and research purposes only, in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act and the Creative Commons license—CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works). 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Voices From Liminal Spaces: Narratives of Unacknowledged Rape By Dusty Jayne Johnstone, M.A. A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies through the Department of Psychology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada 2013 © 2013 Dusty Johnstone ii Voices from Liminal Spaces: Narratives of Unacknowledged Rape by Dusty Jayne Johnstone APPROVED BY: Dr. Charlene Muehlenhard Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Kansas Dr. Dale Rajacich Faculty of Nursing, University of Windsor Dr. Sherry Bergeron Department of Psychology, University of Windsor Dr. Kathryn Lafreniere Department of Psychology, University of Windsor Dr. Charlene Senn Department of Psychology, University of Windsor iii DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that I am the sole author of this dissertation and that no part of this thesis has been published or submitted for publication. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, my thesis does not infringe upon anyone’s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my dissertation, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard referencing practices. Furthermore, to the extent that I have included copyrighted material that surpasses the bounds of fair dealing within the meaning of the Canada Copyright Act, I certify that I have obtained a written permission from the copyright owner(s) to include such material(s) in my dissertation and have included copies of such copyright clearances to my appendix. I declare that this is a true copy of my dissertation, including any final revisions, as approved by my dissertation committee and the Graduate Studies office, and that this thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other University or Institution. iv ABSTRACT The phenomena of unacknowledged rape has been well documented in the empirical literature on sexual assault, and it has been found that a substantial number of women who have experiences that would legally constitute rape or sexual assault choose not to name it as such. The purpose of this investigation was to determine how women who have not acknowledged discuss their experiences in the absence of the labels of rape and sexual assault, and also to examine what influences how they do conceptualize their coercive experiences. Interviews were conducted with ten women from the University of Windsor who reported experiences of rape, but did not label them as such. The women’s narratives of coercion were analyzed using the Listening Guide (Brown & Gilligan, 1992) as an analytic framework, and three voices (or themes) were identified that illuminated how women negotiate experiences of sexual violence in the absence of labels. These voices have been identified as the Not Knowing Voice, the Knowing Voice, and the Ambivalent Voice. These voices are discussed in relation to the broader cultural context, and the complexity of how women struggle to know and name their experiences is framed in relation to the influence of rape culture, neo-liberalism and cultural dialectics. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation began years ago, when I was in the privileged position of learning from two remarkable women at Mount Allison University – Dr. Louise Wasylkiw and Dr. Marie Hammond Callaghan. Louise, my love of research began with your pursuit of different ways of knowing. You gave me my first tools as a qualitative researcher, and you gave me a passion for listening to voices. You gave me a different way of hearing the world. Marie, you unsettled my world through feminist theory and gave me language and ways of thinking about the lives of women that were different – and felt more true. You taught me to think more critically, and showed me that there is a place for our voices and our lives as women in academia. It would be remiss to go a moment further without acknowledging Dr. Charlene Senn as it is her unwavering support and trust that has undergirded this dissertation. Charlene, you directed my gaze to violence against women and I have never looked back. You have trusted me to do my work with heart and integrity. I am enormously grateful for your trust and the freedom that you have given me to do the hard things, and in some small way, even the impossible things. When I think of you I am reminded of the words of Carolyn Robertson Payton: Who must do the hard things? Those who can. Who must do the impossible things? Those who care. Charlene, thank you for caring. To the members of my committee, Dr. Kathryn Lafreniere, Dr. Sherry Bergeron, and Dr. Dale Rajacich, this work was made possible by your belief in it. I cannot imagine how I could have undertaken it without your guidance. You always asked the good vi questions, the right questions, and the hard questions. This work is wreathed with your insight, your instinct, and your grace. I would like to acknowledge my mother, Bernice Johnstone, who has been stalwart in her love and her belief in my abilities. Mum, you are my emotional center and I cannot fathom how I would have succeeded with this work had I not been bolstered by your weekly phone calls and prayers. Thank you for keeping me in your hold even now. And to the other women in my family who have been so essential to my work and my success – my Anty Ruth and my grandmother Christina. Together, you have been so influential in my life. You have nurtured me so consistently, and invested so much of yourselves in me – all that I do is in some way an extension of you. Finally, I would like to acknowledge my father Elisha, ever my most loving supporter, and my brother Clarke, increasingly my most faithful defender. This next series of acknowledgments is in many ways the most significant, because it is the friends herein who have filled in the contours of this experience with joy and meaning. Jenn Krause and Ann Marcoccia – you’ve been my number ones since day one. Time and again, I’m grateful for our mandate to leave no woman behind. Melissa St. Pierre, my chosen sister, thank you for attending to all of my needs, even the ones I didn’t know I had. Lindsay Herriot, Mia Sisic, Jes Penwell-Barnett, and Lauren Moffat, there could be no greater support circle of strong, smart, independent women to carry a gal through graduate school. I’m keeping you. Stefan Branov, thank you for seeing me through so much of the worst of it. Thank you for the many, many work dates, and also for the ever-present emotional support when I needed to talk about the work, and feel my vii way through the feelings. Alex Marar, thank you for being my biggest cheerleader and an unwavering source of encouragement. And to my students – you give me life. I am ever grateful. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the women who participated in this work – the women who lent me their voices and their lives. I am enormously grateful that you gave me the opportunity to do this research, but I am all the more grateful that you allowed me to just sit with you, to listen, and to talk. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY……………………………………………...iii ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………..v CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION................................................................................ 1 Doing Epistemic Justice............................................................................................. 7 Doing Emotional Justice........................................................................................... 37 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................... 42 Narrative Inquiry....................................................................................................... 44 Integrating Feminist Methodology and Narrative Inquiry........................................ 46 CHAPTER III: METHODS ...................................................................................... 52 Participants and Recruitment ...................................................................................