Tainted witness : why we doubt what women say about their lives / Leigh Gilmore.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

How doubt attaches to women's testimony.

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Library Journal Review

Gilmore (women's & gender studies, Wellesley Coll.; The Limits of Autobiography) has written an incisive exploration of women's testaments, considering why women are routinely disbelieved when they speak about their lives. Across five chapters, bracketed by a substantive introduction and conclusion, the author considers how these late 20th- and early 21st-century accounts were generated, circulated, and received. Gilmore argues that doubt haunts the reception of women's stories-particularly those describing sexual trauma-as they travel networks of popular media, legal proceedings, and literature. As the majority of Gilmore's witnesses are women of color (Anita Hill, Rigoberta Menchú, Nafissatou Diallo, and #BlackLivesMatter activists, among others), perceived unreliability owing to race also plays a central role in the analysis. Gilmore packs this work with densely interwoven examples and investigations; consequently, some examples remain underexplored and several theoretical aspects could have been clearer. For example, the notion of neoliberal storytelling or the concept of the "adequate witness" who successfully receives the circulating testimony. VERDICT This compelling contribution to the scholarly literature on women's narratives will be of interest to those who study female agency in law, literature, and popular opinion.-Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Massachusetts Historical Soc. Lib., Boston © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Gilmore (women's and gender studies, Wellesley) apples an unflinching feminist critique to questions of credibility that seem to be the default position when the testimony of women is considered. The author begins with a reexamination of Anita Hill's testimony in the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She illustrates how the issue began with Hill's experience of a common scenario in the life of a woman of color, fixing her assertions in the foundations of both race and gender. Thomas took away Hill's foundation of race by claiming for himself the role of a racial victim of a "high tech lynching." Hill's testimony was reduced to the common he said-she said equation that so often devalues the testimony of a female victim. Gilmore examines the cases of Rigoberta Menchu and Nafissatou Diallo. In both of those cases, it is clear that the credibility of Menchu and Diallo's testimonies were compromised by their gender. Further, Gilmore examines the phenomenon of a "proxy witness," in which it is beneficial or even necessary in the patriarchy that a man tell the story of the woman victim. A very provocative and well-grounded work that deserves considerable attention. Summing Up: Essential. All public and academic levels/libraries. --Fred E. Knowles, Valdosta State University