Survivor Injustice: State-Sanctioned Abuse, Domestic Violence, and the Fight for Bodily Autonomy

Jezebel staff writer Cheung (A Woman’s Place) delivers an insightful overview of contemporary American women’s ability to control and protect their own bodies. Drawing from interviews, statistics, and reportage, Cheung argues that there is an insidious correlation between intimate violence against women and government policy. Conservative legislation restricting women’s reproductive rights, for example, is redolent of tactics commonly used by abusers, such as forcing their partners to carry unwanted pregnancies or to have unwanted abortions. Though “economic sabotage... ranks among the top tactics used in abusive relationships,” Cheung contends that government programs and consumer regulations make it easy for abusers “to take out massive loans in their victims’ name,” tank credit scores, or attach their debt to their victims’ debt as a way to “entrap” a partner financially. Elsewhere, Cheung highlights contradictory criminal court cases in which some women have been jailed for not protecting their children from abusive partners, while others have been imprisoned for fleeing with their kids from abusive relationships. The author’s smart reframing of harmful government policies through the lens of intimate partner violence—she calls the U.S. government “the ultimate abuser”—is backed up by a wealth of detail and careful analysis. It’s an important contribution to the struggle for women’s rights. (Aug.)