Sexual Violence as Surveillance: Exploring Control of Black Women through Relationship, Community, and Institutions

Black women have been severely overlooked in their experiences with sexual violence
within the Black Community. In particular, scholarship that identifies the various levels of
surveillance and control involved with experiencing sexual violence is underrepresented. In this
thesis, I argue that we can draw on Black women’s experiences with sexual violence to illustrate
and better understand the unique forms of surveillance and social control that Black women
experience differently from non-Black survivors of sexual abuse. I ask, in what ways does
interpersonal surveillance manifest in the Black community when Black women survivors of
sexual violence are in abusive relationships and attempt to access community and institutional
resources? Using documentaries, docu-series, articles and books, I closely analyze the ways in
which surveillance is present in Black women survivors’ lives and interactions with their
community. I find that there are multiple forms of surveillance that Black women survivors
experience, that often relate to and are emblematic of Foucault’s panopticon. Where I enter, is in
the racialized and gendered reality of the panopticon and Black women’s experiences with
surveillance in their communities and relationships.