Saints, Sluts and Sexual Assault: Rethinking the Relationship between Sex, Race and Gender

Abstract

This article considers how legal cultures construct different female subjectivities, using an Australian case study that documented the differential treatment of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal complainants within sexual assault trials. In particular, the article analyses the cultural significance of the concepts of sex and race within the sexual assault trial by comparing and contrasting the analytic utility of the sexed bodies approach and the concept of gender for understanding different women’s experiences. It argues that neither of these approaches adequately describes the experiences of black and indigenous women and, instead, presents the concept of convergence for explaining the interactions of sex and race and revealing the unique vulnerabilities of black and indigenous women within legal cultures.