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, and collaboration, with the royal government’.6 Equally, out-and-out criticism of state policy or of the shortcomings of individuals, royal and otherwise, did not feature in the Shows. Such sentiments in civic circles at large were sometimes inchoate in any case; where they were expressed, this tended to occur subtly and tentatively, in coded language and through the careful use of selected figures and emblems.7 I therefore follow Curtis Perry’s judicious approach: one should see the Shows not as ‘points on a graph leading to increased opposition between the city and
The power of vulnerability interrogates the new language of vulnerability that has emerged in feminist, queer and anti-racist debates about the production, use and meanings of media. The book investigates the historical legacies and contemporary forms and effects of this language. In today’s media culture, traumatic first-person or group narratives have popular currency, mobilising affect from compassion to rage to gain cultural visibility and political advantage. In this context, vulnerability becomes a kind of capital, a resource or an asset that can and has been appropriated for various groups and purposes in public discourses, activism as well as cultural institutions. Thus, politics of representation translates into politics of affect, and the question about whose vulnerability counts as socially and culturally legible and acknowledged. The contributors of the book examine how vulnerability has become a battleground; how affect and vulnerability have turned into a politicised language for not only addressing but also obscuring asymmetries of power; and how media activism and state policies address so-called vulnerable groups. While the contributors investigate the political potential as well as the constraints of vulnerability for feminist, queer and antiracist criticism, they also focus on the forms of agency and participation vulnerability can offer.
movement, gay life and press in the 1980s, attitudes towards homosexuality in Sweden and elsewhere, media coverage of HIV/AIDS, state policies, politicians’ reactions, and changes in legislation. Through these passages, the lives of Benjamin, Rasmus, and their friends are explicitly framed as representative of larger histories. On the other hand, the narration of Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves engages the viewer in emotional turmoil by contrasting scenes of happiness, lust, romance, and community with powerful, stereotypical imagery of ‘AIDS victims’. With a
socially – beyond the term of their sentence. Clean Break In attending to the needs of women who have experience of the criminal justice system through its distinctive organisational practices, Clean Break addresses wider issues of gendered social inequality and gendered social injustice. It models an ambitious and enduring resistance to the critical lack of care – even ‘care-lessness’ – in state policy and cultural representations of criminalised women. Clean Break values ‘compassion, collaboration, respect and relationship-making’ (Perman, 2018 ) and this informs
, each with a distinctive approach to the power of vulnerability. The opening part focuses on the notion of vulnerability as a battleground in queer, feminist, and anti-racist 19 Vulnerability as a political language 19 discussions. Part II examines the potential and limits of the language of vulnerability, illuminating how affect and vulnerability have turned into a politicised currency for not only addressing but also obscuring asymmetries of power. Part III focuses on complex intersections between media activism and state policies addressing so