Academic, Author, Feminist, Activist
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ussell’s books and chapters extend to the 1970s. These selected few were produced in the twenty-first century:
- 2000 The epidemic of rape and child sexual abuse in the United States (coauthored with Rebecca M. Bolen)
- 2001 Femicide in global perspective (coauthored with Roberta A. Harmes)
- 2002 “Pornography causes violence” contributed in Pornography: Opposing Viewpoints series (Helen Cothran, ed.)
- 2011 “Exposure to child pornography as a cause of child sexual
victimization: Russell’s theory” contributed in Big Porn Inc: exposing the harms of the global pornography industry
(Melinda Tankard Reist and Abigail Bray, eds.).
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ussell’s words, thoughts, beliefs
In May 1, 2013 “Femicide—The Power of a Name”
Because of multi-faceted activism by women over the past four decades, “Public awareness about violence against women has increased dramatically.”
However, despite well-publicized cases of “male-perpetrated murders of women—including what appear to be increasing numbers of serial killers targeting women and girls— few people seem to register that most of these murders are extreme manifestations of male dominance and sexism.”
US governments (public officials) in the post-9/11 era have been extremely preoccupied with “terrorism”—without any recognition of woman’s life “with male terrorism.” The latter “terrorism,” has been evident every day for eons, in “magnitudes of rape, beatings, femicides, and related acts and threats” dogging the lives of women.
And “unlike victims of national ‘terrorism,’ victims of male terror—while having no way to identify which men pose a threat to them—are often blamed for their (own) deaths.”
Those who put up a self defense which results in the death of a perpetrator are often convicted of murder and handed long prison sentences.
Worst of the worst is perhaps women’s denial of daily, clear and present reality.
“I am hoping,” Russell concluded, “that increasing numbers of American (of the United States) feminists will soon embrace the concept of femicide, and organize to combat it.”
Should that hope not be fully realized, she wrote, “I am optimistic that the term ‘femicide,’ and the activism it usually inspires, will eventually spread from Latin America to the United States of America, and the rest of the world.”
1976 document: “Crimes against Women: Proceedings of the International Tribunal” compiled and edited by Diana E. H. Russell and Nicole Van de Ven
Pornography and Objectification of Women
Pornography has been a long neglected issue for feminists swayed by notions of liberal tolerance. While such “liberals would not tolerate movies that feature whites beating [Negroes] or Christians beating Jews,” they accept without objection films labeled “pornography” that feature women as victims. Any proffered objection, they denounce as prudish, puritanical, victorian.
If men were not encouraged by their socialization (we optimistically assume socialization is responsible!) to divorce their sexual response from their feelings of liking, respect and love; that is, if their sexuality were better integrated with their positive feelings—they would be as uninterested as [are] most women in buying sex from unknown persons [strangers].
Men also would not be interested in what has come to be known as pornography because it turns men on; and further, they would be less interested in rape.”
Rape
“Rape is the only crime where the victim is treated as the accused, because it is a crime which society prefers to deny rather than punish. Rape is a taboo subject.
This applies equally to the rape of minors by members of their families, uncles, step-fathers and fathers—a situation more common that most people realize.
Through rape, a man seeks to subjugate and humiliate the woman; and, if possible, make her participate in her own subjugation and her own humiliation…—the same goals as sought by structures of a patriarchal society:
the nuclear family, economic exploitation, class hierarchy, authoritarian religion, militarism, control of our reproductive functions, the sexist system of education, prostitution, pornography, and sexual permissiveness disguised as liberation.
Persistent structures, continuance of rape; silence must be broken.
“[W]e ourselves must take up the struggle against rape. Individually and collectively, we can break the silence and make [rape] no longer a taboo subject, or something shameful which weighs us down.
We must report the
men who rape us.
Bring charges despite the shame, the disgust, and the wish to forget.
We must pursue our legal actions right to the end.
We must demand not only the application of the existing laws, but also the revision of the laws on rape.
When we are raped, we must demand women doctors, women lawyers, women police.
We must be mutually supportive, morally, materially and in all ways.
Murder and dismemberment of Women (in fiction, in life)
“The murder and mutilation of a woman is not considered a political event. Men tell us they cannot be blamed for what a few ‘maniacs’ do.” Maniacs committing such “atrocities” are carrying through the logical conclusion of woman-hatred that is prevalent throughout the culture.
Snuff
The climax of several pornographic movies of late portrayed “the actual killing and dismembering of a woman.” Such “‘snuff’” movies are replicated. One in the United States advertised footage so “real” that the audience would be unable to tell whether “the killing of the woman was real or not.”
Women slaughtered in movies have no names.
… No demonstrations have accompanied them to the grave.
No protests rocked the city
No leaflets were passed out
No committees were formed.
Today we have remembered them.
Tomorrow we must act to stop femicide!
Unacceptable in film and Science
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ussell on Pornography and Rape
Empirical studies have shown “that the viewing of violent pornography results in higher rates of aggression against women by male subjects.
“…What was considered hard-core in the past has become soft-core in the present. Where will this all end? Will we as a culture forever refuse to read the writing on the wall?
Taking it personally, she writes
“I don’t believe scientists should be expected to be morally indifferent to human suffering and abuse.
“Yes, we need to be very clear about which of our opinions are based on data and how good the data are, which are based on theory, and which are based on hunch.
But once there is very strong evidence that harm is being caused—by pornography, for example—surely it is the duty, even of a scientist, to say so. [Emphasis added]
“Surely such a scientist should also feel able to say that he or she deplores the harm done.
“… [T]his really is freedom of speech!”
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ell done, Diana Elizabeth Hamilton Russell!
Sources
“Crimes Against Women: Proceedings of the International Tribunal” compiled and edited by Diana E. H. Russell and Nicole Van de Ven. First published by Les Femmes, November 1976
Third edition distributed by Russell Publications, Berkeley, California. 1990 http://www.dianarussell.com/f/Crimes_Against_Women_Tribunal.pdf
Russell, Diana “‘Femicide’ —The Power of a Name.” Femicide Definitions May 1, 2013 part of the ACUNS Vienna Femicide Report Volume 1, pages 19-20 https://acuns.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Femicide_A-Gobal-Issue-that-demands....
http://femicide-watch.org/products/femicide%E2%80%94-power-name-diana-russell www.dianarussell.com
Sociologist Diana Russell, who has for decades organized campaigns to end violence against women, argues that labeling the most extreme form of such violence is essential to ending it.
Pornography and Rape: A Causal Model Author(s): Diana E. H. Russell Reviewed work(s): Source: Political Psychology, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Mar., 1988), pp. 41-73Published by: International Society of Political PsychologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3791317 Accessed: 14/11/2011 23:34 https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Diana-Russell-Pornography-and-Rape-A-causal-Model.pdf
Wikipedia
Diana E. H. Russell was a feminist writer and activist born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1957, she moved to England; and four years later, to the United States.
Over a forty-year period she “engaged in research on sexual violence against women and girls” and wrote extensively on rape—“marital rape, femicide, incest, misogynist murders of women, and pornography” Diana Russell November 6, 1938 – July 28, 2020 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_E._H._Russell
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