German #Metoo

Responding to the worldwide impact of the #MeToo movement this volume investigates not only the ubiquity of sexual abuse and sexual violence but also the transhistorical and transnational failure to hold perpetrators accountable. From a range of disciplines the collected essays engage current cultural and political discourses about systemic sexism feminist theory and practice and gender-based discrimination from an academic and activist perspective. The focus on national cultures of German-speaking Europe from the mid-eighteenth century to the present captures the persistence of normalized and institutionalized sexism reframed through the lens of a contemporary political and social movement. With 16 essays from established and emerging scholars <i>German #MeToo</i> argues that sexual violence is not a universal human constant. Rather it is nurtured and sustained by the social political cultural legal and economic fabric of specific societies. The authors sustain and vary their exploration of #MeToo-related issues through considerations of rape prostitution sexual murder the politics of consent and victim-blaming as enacted in literary works by canonical and marginalized authors the visual arts the graphic novel film television and theater. The analysis of rape myths - of discourses and practices in German history and culture that subtend and indemnify sexual violence - is a central subject of this edited volume. Throughout <i>German #MeToo</i> challenges narratives of sex-based discrimination while emphasizing the strategies of resistance and the importance of telling one's own story.