Carceral feminism

Origins of the term – studies of contemporary US anti-trafficking movement

The phrase “carceral feminism” was coined by feminist sociologist Elizabeth Bernstein in her 2007 article, “The Sexual Politics of the ‘New Abolitionism.’” Examining the contemporary anti-trafficking movement in the United States, Bernstein introduced the term to describe the commitment of feminist activists in the movement to criminal justice interventions into forms of sexual labor they cast broadly as sex-trafficking. In light of her previous ethnographic research into the experiences and activism of people engaged in various forms of sexual labor, Bernstein argued that feminist support for anti-trafficking laws that equate prostitution with sex-trafficking have undercut the efforts of sex workers themselves in previous decades to organize for their rights, instead bolstering their criminalization. Also heading the contemporary anti-trafficking movement, evangelical Christians share this commitment to law-and-order in Bernstein’s (2007) account. In a later article, Bernstein (2010) attributed their alliance in criminal justice to the broader political and economic shift in the US from a redistributive welfare state towards a “carceral” one that fosters criminalization and incarceration. She argued that for both feminists and evangelical Christians, politics of gender and sexuality have shifted attention from the family (i.e. issues of battering and abortion, respectively) outward to the public sphere (i.e. sex-trafficking) and in this shift, have intertwined in the anti-trafficking movement with these developing neoliberal politics. In her 2012 article, “Carceral Politics as Gender Justice?” Bernstein expanded on this analysis, using the case of the anti-trafficking movement to demonstrate how feminism has more generally become a vehicle of punitive politics in the US and abroad.

Other domains of “carceral feminism”

Feminist scholars have described the trajectory of feminist activism in other spheres similarly. In their studies of the feminist campaigns around the issues of domestic violence and sexual assault, for example, sociologist Beth Richie (2012) and political theorist Kristin Bumiller (2008) traced the development of the feminist anti-violence movement in the US from its original focus on social transformation to its nearly ubiquitous reliance on law and law-enforcement today. A similar trend has been described outside of the US context—for example, Miriam Ticktin (2008) argued that anti-immigrant sentiments in feminist campaigns against sexual violence in France have served border control and other forms of policing.

Activist critiques of “carceral feminism” and media discussion

Activists have also challenged this mode of feminism. Feminists involved in the prison abolition movement, especially, have been critical of feminist alliances with prisons and policing. The national activist organization Incite! Women of Color Against Violence, for example, formed in 2000 with the conviction that the criminal justice system does support but rather causes further harm for women, gender non-conforming, and trans people of color experiencing interpersonal violence. Since its introduction in 2007, the term “carceral feminism” has been used widely by activists to make such critiques and has made its way into discussions and debates in media forums such as Twitter and Vox.

References

Elizabeth Bernstein. 2007. “The Sexual Politics of the ‘New Abolitionism.’” Differences 18(5): 128-151.

Elizabeth Bernstein. 2010. “Militarized Humanitarianism Meets Carceral Feminism: The Politics of Sex, Rights, and Freedom in Contemporary Antitrafficking Campaigns.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 36(1): 45-71.

Elizabeth Bernstein. 2012. “Carceral Politics as Gender Justice? The ‘Traffic in Women and Neoliberal Circuits of Crime, Sex, and Rights.” Theory and Society 41: 233-259.

Beth Richie. 2012. Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation. New York, NY: New York University Press.

Kristin Bumiller. 2008. In An Abusive State: How Neoliberalism Appropriated the Feminist Movement Against Sexual Violence. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Miriam Ticktin. 2008. “Sexual Violence as the Language of Border Control: Where French Feminist and Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Meet. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 33(4): 363-889.

Alex Press. 2018. “#MeToo Must Avoid ‘Carceral Feminism.’” Vox. February 1. https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/2/1/16952744/me-too-larry-nassar-judge-aquilina-feminism. </ref>