Gendered Disposability of Indigenous Women Across Time and Space

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Colonization and the historical mistreatment of Indigenous women points to their gendered disposability, victimization, and criminalization today. During colonization, Indigenous women’s bodies were controlled through policy, such as the Indian Act, and through physical abuse and rape. Colonization impacted Indigenous women by forcing them to the city where poor living conditions led many to rely on the sex trade as a means of survival, causing further victimization. Due to the criminalization of prostitution, many Indigenous women who use this as a means to survive are “Othered” and perceived as disposable. This disposability extends to the courts and criminal justice system where Indigenous women are not afforded dignity or respect as human beings, for example in the case of Cindy Gladue. The lived experiences of criminalized Indigenous women are not considered and instead colonial stereotypes surrounding Indigenous women’s sexuality remain pervasive. The case of Pamela George will be discussed in the context of prostitution and Indigenous bodies as violent spaces, colonial entitlement to Indigenous bodies and the land, and incorrect implementation of the victimization-criminalization continuum in the cases of criminalized Indigenous women. A long-neglected issue that points to the continued gendered disposability of Indigenous women is the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. In order to break down Indigenous women’s gendered disposability, the victimization-criminalization continuum must be properly acknowledged, the state and community must acknowledge their shared responsibility to Indigenous women, and harmful stereotypical narratives about Indigenous criminality and sexuality must be removed from institutional and everyday discourse.
 Keywords: Indigenous women, disposability, prostitution, colonization, sexual violence, criminal justice system, MMIWG