Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T14:05:16.055Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Curious Disappearances: Affectability Imbalances and Process‐Based Invisibility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Kristie Dotson  and
Marita Gilbert
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the recent public scandal involving Nafissatou Diallo and Dominique Strauss‐Kahn to offer an account of the role affectability imbalances play in process‐based invisibility. Process‐based invisibilities, in this paper, refer to predictable narrative gaps within public narratives that can be aptly described as disappearances. We demonstrate that compromised, complex social identities, maladjusted webs of reciprocity, and a failure to fully appreciate basic affectability in large part cause affectability imbalances. Ultimately, we claim that affectability imbalances and the three imbricated conditions that facilitate such imbalances—complex social identities, reciprocity, and basic affectability—are integral features of process‐based invisibility.

Type
Open Issue Content
Information
Hypatia , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , Fall 2014 , pp. 873 - 888
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, Michelle. 2012. The New Jim Crow. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Arias, Arturo. 2001. The Rigoberta Menchu controversy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Bain, Jennifer, and Fredericks, Bob. 2011. IMF accuser in apt. for HIV vics. New York Post. http://nypost.com/2011/05/18/imf-accuser-in-apt-for-hiv-vics/ (accessed February 27, 2014).Google Scholar
Beverley, John. 2004. Testimonio: On the politics of truth. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Bierra, Alisa. 2013. Missing in action: Violence, power, and discerning agency. Hypatia 29 (1): 1–33.Google Scholar
Binford, Leigh. 2001. Empowered speech: Social fields, testimonio, and the Stoll–Menchú debate. Identites: Global Studies in Culture and Power 8 (1): 105–33.Google Scholar
Chrisafis, Angelique. 2011. Dominique Strauss‐Kahn: From $3,000‐a‐night suite to police cell. The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/15/dominique-strauss-kahn-arrest-allegations (accessed February 27, 2014).Google Scholar
Combahee River Collective. 1995. A Black feminist statement. In Words of fire: An anthology of African‐American feminist thought, ed. Guy‐Sheftall, Beverly. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Cooper, Anna Julia. 1992. Our raison d'être. In The voice of Anna Julia Cooper: Including a voice from the south and other important essays, papers, and letters, ed. Lemert, Charles and Bhan, Esme. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1989. Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum: 139–67.Google Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1992. Whose story is it anyway? Feminist and antiracist appropriations of Anita Hill. In Race‐ing justice, en‐gendering power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the construction of social reality, ed. Morrison, Toni. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Eligon, John. 2011. Strauss‐Kahn drama ends with short final scene. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/nyregion/charges-against-strauss-kahn-dismissed.html?pagewanted=all (accessed February 27, 2014).Google Scholar
Gendar, Alison, and Schapiro, Rich. 2011. Dominique Strauss‐Kahn to receive $250K pension from IMF, outraging congressmen. New York Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/dominique-strauss-kahn-receive-250k-pension-imf-outraging-congressmen-article-1.142785 (accessed February 27, 2014).Google Scholar
Germain, Isabelle. 2011. Don't let Dominique Strauss‐Kahn become the victim. The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/17/dominique-strauss-kahn-french-media (accessed February 27, 2014).Google Scholar
Gilson, Erinn. 2011. Vulnerability, ignorance, and oppression. Hypatia 26 (2): 309–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris‐Perry, Melissa. 2011. Sister citizen: Shame, stereotypes, and Black women in America. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hurston, Zora Neale. 1950. What white publishers won't print. Negro Digest 8 (April): 85–89.Google Scholar
Katersky, Aaron. 2011. Strauss‐Kahn's accuser speaks out. ABC News via Good Morning America.http://abcnews.go.com/US/dominique-strauss-kahns-accuserspeaks/story?id=14150192 (accessed February 27, 2014).Google Scholar
Lorde, Audre. 1984. Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. Trumansburg, N.Y.: Crossing Press.Google Scholar
Lorde, Audre. 1990. Foreword. In Wild women in the whirlwind: Afra‐American culture and the contemporary literary renaissance, ed. Braxton, Joanne and McLaughlin, Andree. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Mayer, Lorraine F. 2007. A return to reciprocity. Hypatia 22 (3): 22–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Mychal Denzel. 2011. How the DSK decision is a win for culture of rape. The Grio. http://www.thegrio.com/opinion/how-the-dsk-decision-is-a-win-for-culture-of-rape.php (accessed February 27, 2014).Google Scholar
Spillers, Hortense. 1984. Interstices: A small drama of words. In Pleasure and danger: exploring sexuality, ed. Vance, Carol. Boston: Routlegde.Google Scholar
Wanzo, Rebecca. 2009. The suffering will not be televised: African American women and sentimental political storytelling. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Williams, Fannie Barrier. 1905. The colored girl. The Voice of the Negro 2 (6): 400–03.Google Scholar
Williams, Patricia. 1991. The alchemy of race and rights: A diary of a law professor. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar