Ruling Passions

Ruling Passions explores the disciplinary processes which constrict women's lives with particular reference to sexual reputation. Drawing on the work of Foucault, Sue Lees explores the way that power functions as a form of self surveillance, and operates through all kinds of institutional and social practices which serve to legitimate male violence.

Based on three research projects, involving interviews and group discussions with adolescents, the analysis of court transcripts of rape and murder trials, and the monitoring of rape trials undertaken for a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, Sue Lees makes an innovative use of the method of discourse analysis to analyse how ideas and social practices function as a system of power and domination. Issues range from the criteria used to determine reputation in adolescence and credibility in rape trials to the representation of the body as a spectacle in trials and the link between marital rape and murder.