ABSTRACT
This chapter begins the work of demonstrating the conditions of possibility for female-perpetrated sex abuse (FSA) victimhood. In order to achieve this, Michel Foucault's seminal work is used to structure an argument on how sexuality is subject to particular material, political, and historical conditions. The chapter traces the historical production of gender and sexuality in order to demonstrate how the products are an outcome of the power/knowledge coupling, and the implications thereof. The gender hegemony of masculinity therefore exists primarily within institutions, structures, relationships, and discourses rather than within individual masculine figures. However, as discursive frameworks for female subjection began to include the 'thinkability' of female sexual prowess, desire, and liberation, so the number of female sex offenders began to 'rise'. The implications of the arguments are presented through the particular examples of sexual 'deviance', female criminality, and male victimhood. The examples underpin the importance of the role of gender and sexuality constructions for the critical analysis of FSA victimhood.
