ABSTRACT
This chapter critically examines the widespread focus on ‘cultural change’ as a mechanism for the prevention of sexual violence. Locating this paradigm within the postmodernist emphasis on norms, discourse and representation, the chapter argues that it detracts attention from the structural and material roots of sexual violence and displaces analysis of the complex interconnections between culture and social structure. It then begins to consider what a materialist theory of sexual violence prevention might look like, drawing on Black and Marxist feminist thinkers to consider the relationship between sexual violence and the ways in which production and social reproduction are organised within the capitalist mode of production. This re-framing challenges the narrow focus on education as the primary lever for preventing sexual violence, revealing the role of collective struggles against various forms of exploitation and domination in transforming the conditions that give rise to sexual violence.
