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Curious Disappearances: Affectability Imbalances and Process‐Based Invisibility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Kristie Dotson  and
Marita Gilbert
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Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the recent public scandal involving Nafissatou Diallo and Dominique Strauss‐Kahn to offer an account of the role affectability imbalances play in process‐based invisibility. Process‐based invisibilities, in this paper, refer to predictable narrative gaps within public narratives that can be aptly described as disappearances. We demonstrate that compromised, complex social identities, maladjusted webs of reciprocity, and a failure to fully appreciate basic affectability in large part cause affectability imbalances. Ultimately, we claim that affectability imbalances and the three imbricated conditions that facilitate such imbalances—complex social identities, reciprocity, and basic affectability—are integral features of process‐based invisibility.

Type
Open Issue Content
Information
Hypatia , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , Fall 2014 , pp. 873 - 888
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by Hypatia, Inc.

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