Louise Armstrong: Incest– Getting Our Own Back

“Men do not do this in spite of the fact that they know it is wrong. Those men who choose to do so, do it because they believe it is their right, or at least justifiable.”

“This is our issue. It is a political issue. It is a feminist issue. And it's time to get our own back.” 

"Incest, the sexualization of children cast in Procrustean form, has been transmogrified, hijacked. From a political issue framed by feminists as a sexual offence on the part of men - for which we demanded accountability and censure - incest has been co-opted and reformulated by the therapeutic ideology, as an illness in women to be treated. In children, it is a prediction of illness to be treated. The issue of incest today is seen not as social but as medical. The response is not a call for change but for "treatment." "The personal is political" has been recast as "the personal is all."

How did we get here? How did we get from "breaking the silence" to a place where once again women's voices are not being heard in any meaningful way? How did we get to allegations of "False Memories" and to an insistence that the issue is "gender-neutral?" What can feminists do to reclaim the issue? How can we refocus public attention on the offence and on the offender? How can we re-invigorate the kind of optimism that says we can make social change and create meaningful paths to prevention and protection for children?

Louise has spoken widely at colleges, conferences and conventions. Kiss Daddy Goodnight, published in 1978, broke the taboo on talking about incest. Rocking the Cradle of Sexual Politics: What Happened When Women Said Incest, published in 1994, was described as 'An important, incendiary, unapologetic history written in hope of rekindling the possibility of radical change - nothing less than a redistribution of gender power'. Her most recent publication is Of 'Sluts' and 'Bastards': A Feminist Decodes the Child Welfare Debate (1995)."

Louise died aged 71 on August 10, 2008. Read this obituary published in the Guardian and written by Julie Bindel:

"Feminists all over the world knew of and admired Armstrong's courage and clarity. She has been described as being "like a dog with a bone", and would never temper her critique of those who minimised the prevalence and effects of incest, or those who sought to make an industry of it. Armstrong's sense of humour and wicked wit was legendary. When she was lauded for "breaking the silence" on child sexual abuse, she replied: "Yes. But it was not our intention merely to start a long conversation."