Knowing Victims

Stringer examines how victimhood figures in contemporary feminism and politics. She focuses on the idea of "victim feminism," a view that casts feminism as a passive stance denying women's capacity to act, and on the argument among feminists about this idea that began in the 1980s. The book is presented as the first full study of that debate.

It tracks a wider retreat from the vocabulary of victimhood across many areas of public discourse, along with the neoliberal move that trades the notion of structural oppression for personal responsibility. Under this framework, victimization becomes a state of mind rather than a social condition. Drawing on Nietzsche, Lyotard, rape crisis feminism and feminist philosophy, Stringer treats feminist work on rape, interpersonal violence, economic inequality and welfare reform as places where the logic of victim blaming is contested.

While recent feminist critiques have analysed the anti-victim movement, Stringer contends they have not made a positive case for victim politics. She proposes understanding the victim as an agent who bears knowledge, and resentment as a force that can drive social change, as a counter to the negative image of victimhood typical of the neoliberal era. Written for researchers and students of gender and women's studies, psychology, sociology, politics and philosophy.