He Said/She Said: Narrative Repetition and the Historical Analysis of Rape

Mara Keire will discuss the role of narrative repetition in legal cases prosecuting sexual violence. She will unpack the problematic shorthand of "he said/she said" which privileges the male voice. By intertwining an analysis of felony age of consent cases in New York City during the early twentieth century with her own of sexual violence from her rape in 1984 to suing her alleged rapists this spring under New York's Child Victim Act, Keire will consider the cumulative impact of narrative repetition in individual cases and social movements.

Dr Mara Keire is a Senior Research Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford. She is the author of For Business and Pleasure: Red-Light Districts and the Regulation of Vice in the United States, 1890-1933 (2010), and between other projects is working on a book, Under the Boardwalk: Rape in New York City, 1890-1930.

Please note that Dr Keire will discuss sexual violence in a brutally frank way.  You can read more about why she studies sexual violence in her recent blog post: https://16daysblogathon.blog/2021/12/05/day-eleven-no-it-wasnt-different-back-then-1-researching-rape-in-20th-century-us/ as well as her own victim impact statement: https://tastefulrude.com/in-the-aftermath-reflections-by-survivors-of-gender-based-violence/