This book studies activism against child sexual abuse, tracing it from its emergence in feminist anti‐rape efforts, through the development of mainstream self‐help, conflicts with an opposing movement, and entry into mass media and public policy. Activists sought to change their feelings about child sexual abuse, to challenge its cultural invisibility, and to gain institutional resources. Elaborating a “therapeutic politics,” activists saw tactics for changing the self and emotion as crucial for widespread social change and combined them with efforts to change institutions and the state. The b ... More

This book studies activism against child sexual abuse, tracing it from its emergence in feminist anti‐rape efforts, through the development of mainstream self‐help, conflicts with an opposing movement, and entry into mass media and public policy. Activists sought to change their feelings about child sexual abuse, to challenge its cultural invisibility, and to gain institutional resources. Elaborating a “therapeutic politics,” activists saw tactics for changing the self and emotion as crucial for widespread social change and combined them with efforts to change institutions and the state. The book argues that these tactics were a challenge to efforts by the state and powerful institutions to shape the self; activists against child sexual abuse played an important part in developing and disseminating the therapeutic politics that have become important to many social movements. The book conceptualizes the selection processes by which some movement goals entered mainstream media and public policy, while others did not. As activists engaged with the state and opposing movements, shifting political winds pulled them toward formulations of child sexual abuse as a medical or criminal problem and away from emphases on gender and power. Like many social movements, it achieved social change that was a mixture of compromise, cooptation, and gains. The book thus sheds light on the processes of incomplete social change that characterize contemporary politics in the United States.