ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses women as willing consumers of dominant ideologies that sanction state-perpetrated violence against women. There are many historical examples of women perpetrating state-sanctioned violence against women. From foot binding, to corsetry, to breast-ironing these behaviors have been permitted by the state, reified by institutions and acted out by women against other women for the benefit of men. Women performing female genital mutilation are instrumental to the reproduction not only of the act of female genital mutilation, but also the justification of the necessity of the act. In the United States women holding public office are in a unique position to advance the rights of women, yet they frequently adopt the very ideologies that continue to suppress the rights of women. Public officials not only consume conservative patriarchal ideologies that are detrimental to women but use their public platform to give voice to the advancement of these ideas.
