Abstract
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the common law of England solidified a masculine ideal of feminine resistance that required women to resist if they were to be recognized as victims of rape. This essay seeks to understand this conception of resistance that is racialized, largely violent, normative, and patriarchal. It also attempts to explain why this conception of resistance would be adopted as a condition for proving a criminal act. The second half of the essay argues that this patriarchal conception of resistance plays an important role in Michael Walzer's account of international recognition and aggression. The sorts of pressures that may explain the inclusion of a patriarchal resistance in the law of rape may also be in play in the case of these international norms. Resistance has an underbelly which calls for our vigilance even as the term is employed in the arduous struggle for freedom.
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