ABSTRACT
I started this book with a series of questions that arose as I watched the debate on a specifi c set of gang rapes in France and Australia. As I have shown through my engagement with the different public discourses on these rapes, there were both important specifi cities to the responses in each nation and some interesting commonalities. In particular, while the forms of the discourses varied in both countries, a series of key concerns emerged in each. These broadly focused on questions of ‘normal’ gender identity and sexuality, race and culture and the identity of the nation in the face of diversity. In this the fi nal chapter of the book I return to exploring the signifi cance of the ‘Sydney gang rapes’ and ‘ les tournantes ’ to constructions of gender, race and the nation in Australia and France and to consider what broader lessons these events may hold for those of us living in Western liberal democracies and committed to an anti-racist, feminist politics.
