Consent, Exposure and Agency: The Ethics of Digitizing an Archive of Rape and Other Social Movements Trauma, 1967 - 2017
Panel
3B: History, Origins and Digital Histories
Abstract
Given the entrenched historical and cultural legacy of patriarchy, the history of the redefinition of “rape” as including a crime committed against a woman by her husband is nothing short of revolutionary. But despite decades of work to transform laws, practices, and cultural expectations across the United States and in 20 other countries, the history of this feminist revolution remains inaccessible to many audiences. Regrettably, continuing reluctance to acknowledge the reality of rape is the history of rape, as is the case with many social movements. To correct this continuing tragedy, Laura X has spent more than 50 years assembling materials within the illegalization of marital and date rape movement, and many other social movements since 1967 ( LauraXinstitute.org/archives and ncmdr.org/socialmovements). Laura’s Social Movements Archives (LSMA) now holds over 500 boxes of materials that bear witness to traumatized personal and cultural history, while also celebrating the power of survival, resilience and reclamation. Rather than solely recording the workings of the courts, police and government in a collection of power-based files, this collection aims to be a feminist memory-based project that is a repository of emotion, healing and empowerment that is relevant and needed for researchers and students alike. But the reach of this collection has become static in its physical form, and we now must wrestle with creative, ethical and feminist ways to embrace the public nature of the digital. With more than 50 years of accumulating letters, periodicals, print clippings, pamphlets, songs, graphics, theses, poems and other documents within the women’s movement and many other social movements, the unrestricted nature of this collection reflects the fragmented and fragmenting crisis of marital and date rape, as well as the traumatic memories of many struggling social movements. As LSMA begins to explore digitizing our microfilms-- Herstory, Women and Health/Mental Health, Women and Law--and previously un-microfilmed originals of the source collections (see LauraXinstitute.org and ncmdr.org/socialmovements) and considers a relationship with the Internet Archive’s open-access online platform, we are faced with new ethical obligations. By opening these women’s lives to a risky online public sphere, we confront new questions of consent, power, viewing, and agency: How do we gather legal consent from donors and storytellers for sensitive materials to be made available online? What other kinds of ethical precepts and responsibilities are tied into the exposure of an online public sphere? What are the ethical limits of what can be done with these intimate materials? Who has a right to access these vulnerable realms? How can we protect against misuse, attack, dissent or harassment? What kind of ethos and structure are needed for an appropriately feminist digital platform? As we move towards new levels of exposure and accessibility that digitization offers LSMA, we are listening to the voices of the past to inform and guide us to new ethical practices of digitization. By using a feminist and victim advocacy sieve, we at LSMA have started to filter activist materials through copyright and intellectual property rights, to redact portions of or restrict access to unpublicized stories of assault, to monitor the levels of online access and to juggle other ethical digitizing obligations. This presentation explores Laura’s Social Movements Archives’ ongoing inquiry into the stakes, risks, and opportunities of digitizing trauma, intimacy and resilience in feminist and other social movements.
Consent, Exposure and Agency: The Ethics of Digitizing an Archive of Rape and Other Social Movements Trauma, 1967 - 2017
Given the entrenched historical and cultural legacy of patriarchy, the history of the redefinition of “rape” as including a crime committed against a woman by her husband is nothing short of revolutionary. But despite decades of work to transform laws, practices, and cultural expectations across the United States and in 20 other countries, the history of this feminist revolution remains inaccessible to many audiences. Regrettably, continuing reluctance to acknowledge the reality of rape is the history of rape, as is the case with many social movements. To correct this continuing tragedy, Laura X has spent more than 50 years assembling materials within the illegalization of marital and date rape movement, and many other social movements since 1967 ( LauraXinstitute.org/archives and ncmdr.org/socialmovements). Laura’s Social Movements Archives (LSMA) now holds over 500 boxes of materials that bear witness to traumatized personal and cultural history, while also celebrating the power of survival, resilience and reclamation. Rather than solely recording the workings of the courts, police and government in a collection of power-based files, this collection aims to be a feminist memory-based project that is a repository of emotion, healing and empowerment that is relevant and needed for researchers and students alike. But the reach of this collection has become static in its physical form, and we now must wrestle with creative, ethical and feminist ways to embrace the public nature of the digital. With more than 50 years of accumulating letters, periodicals, print clippings, pamphlets, songs, graphics, theses, poems and other documents within the women’s movement and many other social movements, the unrestricted nature of this collection reflects the fragmented and fragmenting crisis of marital and date rape, as well as the traumatic memories of many struggling social movements. As LSMA begins to explore digitizing our microfilms-- Herstory, Women and Health/Mental Health, Women and Law--and previously un-microfilmed originals of the source collections (see LauraXinstitute.org and ncmdr.org/socialmovements) and considers a relationship with the Internet Archive’s open-access online platform, we are faced with new ethical obligations. By opening these women’s lives to a risky online public sphere, we confront new questions of consent, power, viewing, and agency: How do we gather legal consent from donors and storytellers for sensitive materials to be made available online? What other kinds of ethical precepts and responsibilities are tied into the exposure of an online public sphere? What are the ethical limits of what can be done with these intimate materials? Who has a right to access these vulnerable realms? How can we protect against misuse, attack, dissent or harassment? What kind of ethos and structure are needed for an appropriately feminist digital platform? As we move towards new levels of exposure and accessibility that digitization offers LSMA, we are listening to the voices of the past to inform and guide us to new ethical practices of digitization. By using a feminist and victim advocacy sieve, we at LSMA have started to filter activist materials through copyright and intellectual property rights, to redact portions of or restrict access to unpublicized stories of assault, to monitor the levels of online access and to juggle other ethical digitizing obligations. This presentation explores Laura’s Social Movements Archives’ ongoing inquiry into the stakes, risks, and opportunities of digitizing trauma, intimacy and resilience in feminist and other social movements.