Abstract: Uma teoria feminista da violência, written by Françoise Vergès, explores decolonial feminism and criticizes white-bourgeois feminism. The work emphasizes the inequalities faced by racialized women and the importance of inclusive public policies. It stands out for its criticism of state violence and the call to combat systemic violence.
Keywords: Feminist Theory, violence, and decolonial Feminism.
Uma teoria feminista da violência — Por uma política antirracista da proteção is a work written by Françoise Vèrges, published in Brazil in 2021 by Ubu Editora, it does not have a preface, but presents on the fourth cover a summary of the author’s objective, which uses the writing to approach violence from the point of view of decolonial feminism. In the text, there is a powerful critique of systemic violence, analyzing them in their different social, economic and cultural contexts, and the defense of institutional public policies that actually include the vulnerable and those excluded from power.
Vergès is a political scientist, historian, activist and specialist in post-colonial studies and decolonial and anti-racist feminism that considers the pluriform nature of gender. The work under analysis, written in a context of the rise of the right and the strengthening of neoliberalism, presents a political and provocative tone in the form of a manifesto denouncing white-bourgeois feminism, called by the author, civilizing feminism, which operates according to the logic of patriarchal and neoliberal power, and excludes racialized people and women from the global South. She critically highlights the state violence practiced against black and racialized women, as a result of patriarchy and racism. The production is divided into an introduction, three chapters subdivided into topics and a conclusion.
In the introduction, the author makes a provocation by presenting an excerpt from the text “A rapist on your path”, by Diane Sprimont, entitled “The oppressive State is a male rapist”, whose purpose is to support the argument that the State is the condensation of all imperialist, patriarchal and capitalist oppressions and exploitations. In the same section, Vergès calls for the fight against state violence and a call for reflection on violence as a structuring element of patriarchy and capitalism and police repression and judicialization of social problems. When reading the introduction, we are already looking forward to what comes next, given the context of problematizations about patriarchy, the racialization of black and women’s bodies, which invites the reader about a policy of decolonial protection and anti-racist.
The first chapter is divided into five topics, which address the relationship between the State, patriarchy, capitalism and feminist movements, the importance of denaturalizing violence and the analysis of the neoliberal structure that produces and perpetuates inequalities based on the exploitation of labor, in the degradation of the environment and in armed conflicts that institutionalize structural racism and violence, especially against women. The author relates the advance of neoliberalism to the exclusion of vulnerable people from protection policies, relegating them to exploitation, police violence, the judicialization of social problems and capitalist domination. The chapter is succinct, there are several inscriptions in footnotes that refer to foreign publications, which makes it difficult to delve deeper into the theory, which despite being formulated by the author, is based on the analysis of the social structures of countries in the global South colonized by Europeans , the French policy of imperialist domination and its effects on contemporary society.
No segundo capítulo, subdividido em três tópicos, a autora questiona as concepções dominantes sobre violência de gênero e o papel das políticas públicas e discursos políticos do Estado no combate às violências contra as mulheres racializadas. Para Vèrges, trata-se ainda de uma abordagem com resquícios coloniais e racistas que contribuem para a proliferação em ordem geopolítica global das violências contra as mulheres. A autora faz um aporte à liberdade empreendedora das mulheres racializadas em contraste com o capitalismo neoliberal, critica a negação da história do imperialismo e da escravidão colonial no debate sobre a questão racial e o processo de branqueamento. Adiante, uma abordagem histórica referente às formas de escravização nas colônias francesas, em que mulheres eram objetos de exploração sexual. A narrativa do capítulo é mais específica ao retratar as violências sistêmicas, de gênero e sexuais contra as mulheres, ao temo em que clama pelo respeito às mulheres, e pela compreensão das desigualdades sociais e estruturais durante o processo de elaboração de políticas públicas de proteção, que atualmente, reprime os vulneráveis, gera insegurança e institucionaliza outras formas de violências.
The third chapter, in its seven topics, addresses the use of punishment to attackers as a solution to violence against women. For Françoise, punishment feminism has been dominant in public policies to combat gender violence, as the repression and criminalization of conduct increases. Françoise criticizes white and bourgeois feminism for not offering the strength and energy needed to combat domination and oppression against women and calls readers to reflect on decolonial feminism, theory explained in the book by feminism Decolonial, the same authorship. In highlighting the relationship between discrimination and exploitation in the world of work with systemic, gender and sexual violence against women and non-binary people, the author develops a critique of the penal system and how it intervenes in the protection of victims of violence . Vergès recognizes prisons as deposits of poor and miserable bodies in a society where feelings of insecurity and impotence tend to grow. Sexwork became the place of the new forms of slavery and oppression of women, whose salvation could only come from a western state and their police. While prostitution symbolizes women’s subordination to sexual product status, they will be discriminated and violated. Ahead, the author highlights the hostility of public spaces to the poor and racialized and argues that arrests do not constitute a central element to solve social problems, as the state uses prison to punish non-white and poor populations. I identified this chapter as the most informative and provocative, as it leads us to reflect on issues expensive to society, as the author addresses historical, geopolitical, anthropological and social aspects, when presenting racialization, the vulnerability of bodies and the social exclusion of individuals, Exposing your experience of political scientist, historian and activist.
Finally, the conclusion in six topics narrates the systemic and structural violence of racial capitalism and patriarchy, addresses the trajectory of feminist movements that denounced violence in which health, colonialism, racism, sexism, sexual violence and aggression were intertwined, environmental crimes, environmental violence , relations between women and men, intergenerational solidarity and resistance. It also points out that, analyzing violence is that male domination exerts power over women and men, exposing them to neoliberalism, vulnerability, precarious work, poverty and violence against Women, mostly to the racialized. Highlighting the critical and provoking characteristic of his writing, Vèrges concludes the work highlighting the need to struggle against the patriarchal, sexist and racist state, which represses rights through brutality and strength, and condemns civilizing feminists, as they play the role effective neocolonial administrators.
The text is completed with accuracy and synthesis of the main ideas launched throughout the work, when it presents solutions to the confrontation of state violence as subservient to neoliberalism, and reproducers of imperialist dominations, social, gender and racial inequalities.
When imperialism for women. Ana Maria, from El Salvador, tries to reach the USA with her one-year-old son | Image: Andrees Latif/Reuters/El Pais
The work emphasizes characteristics of Decolonial feminism and exposes criticisms of civilizing feminism and state punitivism, calling for the fight and confrontation of systemic violence, feminicide and gender-based violence against women and the LGBTQ+ community. In the arrangement of her arguments, the author draws a parallel between the neoliberal offensive and the political rise of the right, and the increase in poverty, discrimination and segregation based on race, class and gender. Reading the work is recommended for readers eager to ask questions about violence against women and socially marginalized groups, and how the system of criminalizing to punish mostly affects black and poor individuals, by individualizing conduct and disregarding the social structures of exploitation and domination.
Using a political and activist discourse, Vèrges states that systemic violence institutionalizes prison as a mechanism of social control, while destroying the conditions necessary for the preservation of human life. The text is invigorating to read, due to its criticism of the bourgeoisie, the patriarchal State and prison feminism, it is a concise and dense work in theories and provocations. In order to encourage demonstrations and movements to combat violence, it calls on feminists to reflect on decolonial feminism, presenting possibilities and convincing arguments. However, the indications of bibliographical references in footnotes, intended to deepen the discussions projected in the text, are complex and not very accessible to the majority of readers, even so, the text is understandable and relevant, because, in leads us to reflect on the criticisms made against the punitive, neoliberal and patriarchal State that oppresses subjects in their vulnerabilities. Let us remain with the pertinent question: What society do we desire and how can we face and combat systemic violence?
References
VERGÈS, Françoise. Um feminismo decolonial. São Paulo: Ubu Editora, 2020.
Summary of Uma teoria feminista da violência
Introdução
1. A violência neoliberal
2. Abordagem civilizatória da proteção das mulheres
3. O impasse do feminismo punitivista
4. Conclusão – o feminismo decolonial como utopia
Sobre a autora
Reviewer
Viviane Andrade Passos is a teacher at Escola Municipal Tiradentes (Semed/NSG) and Cícero Bezerra State College (Seduc-SE), both in the municipality of Nossa Senhora da Glória-SE. Student of the Master in History Teaching of the Universidade Federal de Sergipe. ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/7026713252936689; ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4077-3916; Facebook: /viviane.andrade.56863; Instagram: vivi.andrade_23 E-mail: [email protected].
To cite this review
VERGÉ, Françoise. Uma teoria feminista da violência: por uma política antirracista da proteção. São Paulo: Ubu Editora, 2021. 160p. Tradução de Raquel Camargo. Review bye: PASSOS, Viviane Andrade. Revolutionary Love and Decolonial Feminism. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.3, n.14, Nov/Dec, 2023. Available at <Revolutionary Love and Decolonial Feminism — Resenha de Viviane Andrade Passos (UFS) sobre o livro “Uma teoria feminista da violência”, de Françoise Vergès – Crítica Historiografica (criticahistoriografica.com.br)>.
Abstract: Uma teoria feminista da violência, written by Françoise Vergès, explores decolonial feminism and criticizes white-bourgeois feminism. The work emphasizes the inequalities faced by racialized women and the importance of inclusive public policies. It stands out for its criticism of state violence and the call to combat systemic violence.
Keywords: Feminist Theory, violence, and decolonial Feminism.
Uma teoria feminista da violência — Por uma política antirracista da proteção is a work written by Françoise Vèrges, published in Brazil in 2021 by Ubu Editora, it does not have a preface, but presents on the fourth cover a summary of the author’s objective, which uses the writing to approach violence from the point of view of decolonial feminism. In the text, there is a powerful critique of systemic violence, analyzing them in their different social, economic and cultural contexts, and the defense of institutional public policies that actually include the vulnerable and those excluded from power.
Vergès is a political scientist, historian, activist and specialist in post-colonial studies and decolonial and anti-racist feminism that considers the pluriform nature of gender. The work under analysis, written in a context of the rise of the right and the strengthening of neoliberalism, presents a political and provocative tone in the form of a manifesto denouncing white-bourgeois feminism, called by the author, civilizing feminism, which operates according to the logic of patriarchal and neoliberal power, and excludes racialized people and women from the global South. She critically highlights the state violence practiced against black and racialized women, as a result of patriarchy and racism. The production is divided into an introduction, three chapters subdivided into topics and a conclusion.
In the introduction, the author makes a provocation by presenting an excerpt from the text “A rapist on your path”, by Diane Sprimont, entitled “The oppressive State is a male rapist”, whose purpose is to support the argument that the State is the condensation of all imperialist, patriarchal and capitalist oppressions and exploitations. In the same section, Vergès calls for the fight against state violence and a call for reflection on violence as a structuring element of patriarchy and capitalism and police repression and judicialization of social problems. When reading the introduction, we are already looking forward to what comes next, given the context of problematizations about patriarchy, the racialization of black and women’s bodies, which invites the reader about a policy of decolonial protection and anti-racist.
The first chapter is divided into five topics, which address the relationship between the State, patriarchy, capitalism and feminist movements, the importance of denaturalizing violence and the analysis of the neoliberal structure that produces and perpetuates inequalities based on the exploitation of labor, in the degradation of the environment and in armed conflicts that institutionalize structural racism and violence, especially against women. The author relates the advance of neoliberalism to the exclusion of vulnerable people from protection policies, relegating them to exploitation, police violence, the judicialization of social problems and capitalist domination. The chapter is succinct, there are several inscriptions in footnotes that refer to foreign publications, which makes it difficult to delve deeper into the theory, which despite being formulated by the author, is based on the analysis of the social structures of countries in the global South colonized by Europeans , the French policy of imperialist domination and its effects on contemporary society.
No segundo capítulo, subdividido em três tópicos, a autora questiona as concepções dominantes sobre violência de gênero e o papel das políticas públicas e discursos políticos do Estado no combate às violências contra as mulheres racializadas. Para Vèrges, trata-se ainda de uma abordagem com resquícios coloniais e racistas que contribuem para a proliferação em ordem geopolítica global das violências contra as mulheres. A autora faz um aporte à liberdade empreendedora das mulheres racializadas em contraste com o capitalismo neoliberal, critica a negação da história do imperialismo e da escravidão colonial no debate sobre a questão racial e o processo de branqueamento. Adiante, uma abordagem histórica referente às formas de escravização nas colônias francesas, em que mulheres eram objetos de exploração sexual. A narrativa do capítulo é mais específica ao retratar as violências sistêmicas, de gênero e sexuais contra as mulheres, ao temo em que clama pelo respeito às mulheres, e pela compreensão das desigualdades sociais e estruturais durante o processo de elaboração de políticas públicas de proteção, que atualmente, reprime os vulneráveis, gera insegurança e institucionaliza outras formas de violências.
The third chapter, in its seven topics, addresses the use of punishment to attackers as a solution to violence against women. For Françoise, punishment feminism has been dominant in public policies to combat gender violence, as the repression and criminalization of conduct increases. Françoise criticizes white and bourgeois feminism for not offering the strength and energy needed to combat domination and oppression against women and calls readers to reflect on decolonial feminism, theory explained in the book by feminism Decolonial, the same authorship. In highlighting the relationship between discrimination and exploitation in the world of work with systemic, gender and sexual violence against women and non-binary people, the author develops a critique of the penal system and how it intervenes in the protection of victims of violence . Vergès recognizes prisons as deposits of poor and miserable bodies in a society where feelings of insecurity and impotence tend to grow. Sexwork became the place of the new forms of slavery and oppression of women, whose salvation could only come from a western state and their police. While prostitution symbolizes women’s subordination to sexual product status, they will be discriminated and violated. Ahead, the author highlights the hostility of public spaces to the poor and racialized and argues that arrests do not constitute a central element to solve social problems, as the state uses prison to punish non-white and poor populations. I identified this chapter as the most informative and provocative, as it leads us to reflect on issues expensive to society, as the author addresses historical, geopolitical, anthropological and social aspects, when presenting racialization, the vulnerability of bodies and the social exclusion of individuals, Exposing your experience of political scientist, historian and activist.
Finally, the conclusion in six topics narrates the systemic and structural violence of racial capitalism and patriarchy, addresses the trajectory of feminist movements that denounced violence in which health, colonialism, racism, sexism, sexual violence and aggression were intertwined, environmental crimes, environmental violence , relations between women and men, intergenerational solidarity and resistance. It also points out that, analyzing violence is that male domination exerts power over women and men, exposing them to neoliberalism, vulnerability, precarious work, poverty and violence against Women, mostly to the racialized. Highlighting the critical and provoking characteristic of his writing, Vèrges concludes the work highlighting the need to struggle against the patriarchal, sexist and racist state, which represses rights through brutality and strength, and condemns civilizing feminists, as they play the role effective neocolonial administrators.
The text is completed with accuracy and synthesis of the main ideas launched throughout the work, when it presents solutions to the confrontation of state violence as subservient to neoliberalism, and reproducers of imperialist dominations, social, gender and racial inequalities.
When imperialism for women. Ana Maria, from El Salvador, tries to reach the USA with her one-year-old son | Image: Andrees Latif/Reuters/El Pais
The work emphasizes characteristics of Decolonial feminism and exposes criticisms of civilizing feminism and state punitivism, calling for the fight and confrontation of systemic violence, feminicide and gender-based violence against women and the LGBTQ+ community. In the arrangement of her arguments, the author draws a parallel between the neoliberal offensive and the political rise of the right, and the increase in poverty, discrimination and segregation based on race, class and gender. Reading the work is recommended for readers eager to ask questions about violence against women and socially marginalized groups, and how the system of criminalizing to punish mostly affects black and poor individuals, by individualizing conduct and disregarding the social structures of exploitation and domination.
Using a political and activist discourse, Vèrges states that systemic violence institutionalizes prison as a mechanism of social control, while destroying the conditions necessary for the preservation of human life. The text is invigorating to read, due to its criticism of the bourgeoisie, the patriarchal State and prison feminism, it is a concise and dense work in theories and provocations. In order to encourage demonstrations and movements to combat violence, it calls on feminists to reflect on decolonial feminism, presenting possibilities and convincing arguments. However, the indications of bibliographical references in footnotes, intended to deepen the discussions projected in the text, are complex and not very accessible to the majority of readers, even so, the text is understandable and relevant, because, in leads us to reflect on the criticisms made against the punitive, neoliberal and patriarchal State that oppresses subjects in their vulnerabilities. Let us remain with the pertinent question: What society do we desire and how can we face and combat systemic violence?
References
VERGÈS, Françoise. Um feminismo decolonial. São Paulo: Ubu Editora, 2020.
Summary of Uma teoria feminista da violência
Introdução
1. A violência neoliberal
2. Abordagem civilizatória da proteção das mulheres
3. O impasse do feminismo punitivista
4. Conclusão – o feminismo decolonial como utopia
Sobre a autora
Reviewer
Viviane Andrade Passos is a teacher at Escola Municipal Tiradentes (Semed/NSG) and Cícero Bezerra State College (Seduc-SE), both in the municipality of Nossa Senhora da Glória-SE. Student of the Master in History Teaching of the Universidade Federal de Sergipe. ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/7026713252936689; ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4077-3916; Facebook: /viviane.andrade.56863; Instagram: vivi.andrade_23 E-mail: [email protected].
To cite this review
VERGÉ, Françoise. Uma teoria feminista da violência: por uma política antirracista da proteção. São Paulo: Ubu Editora, 2021. 160p. Tradução de Raquel Camargo. Review bye: PASSOS, Viviane Andrade. Revolutionary Love and Decolonial Feminism. Crítica Historiográfica. Natal, v.3, n.14, Nov/Dec, 2023. Available at <Revolutionary Love and Decolonial Feminism — Resenha de Viviane Andrade Passos (UFS) sobre o livro “Uma teoria feminista da violência”, de Françoise Vergès – Crítica Historiografica (criticahistoriografica.com.br)>.
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Viviane Andrade Passos is a teacher at Escola Municipal Tiradentes (Semed/NSG) and Cícero Bezerra State College (Seduc-SE), both in the municipality of Nossa Senhora da Glória-SE. Student of the Master in History Teaching of the Universidade Federal de Sergipe. ID LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/7026713252936689; ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4077-3916; Facebook: /viviane.andrade.56863; Instagram: vivi.andrade_23 E-mail: [email protected].
