Ronald J. Berger

Disability and the Dedicated Wheelchair Athlete Beyond the “Supercrip” Critique

The “supercrip” athlete is often derided as a figure that is antithetical to the interests of people with disabilities. But few researchers have questioned the assumptions of this complaint or examined it empirically. In this article I problematize the supercrip critique and argue for a more nuanced view of dedicated disabled athletes as offering both a disempowering and an empowering experience for people with disabilities. I report on the results of in-depth interviews of ballplayers and other personnel associated with a premier collegiate wheelchair basketball program, documenting the unintended social fissures that developed between elite athletes and nonathletes within this disability community, and revealing tensions between exclusionary and inclusionary aspects of the sport and between separatist and integrationist strategies of using sport for progressive social change and personal empowerment. I conclude by considering the broader implications of the study for the role of sport in the disability rights movement.

THE FEMINIST SELF-DEFENSE MOVEMENT: A Case Study

This article discusses feminist self-defense as a victim-prevention strategy, describes the nature and scope of the self-defense movement, examines a case history of a womens self-defense organization, and analyzes the mobilization and organizational dilemmas that confronted that organization. We compare self-defense services with victim services to help explain the development of the womens self-defense movement, and in particular, its feminist component.

Rape and Society: Readings on the Problem of Sexual Assault

Feminist Foundations For The Study Of Rape And Society * Rape Poem Marge Piercy. * The Trauma of Rape: The Case of Ms. X Diana E.H. Russell. * The Social Context of Rape: Sexual Scripts and Motivation Stevi Jackson. * Sex and Violence: A Perspective Catharine A. MacKinnon. * Hidden Rape: Sexual Aggression and Victimization in a National Sample of Students in Higher Education Mary P. Koss. Why Men Rape * Jay: An Armchair Rapist Timothy Beneke. * Riding the Bull at Gilleys: Convicted Rapists Describe the Rewards of Rape Diana Scully and Joseph Marolla. * Considering Sex Offenders: A Model of Addiction Judith Lewis Herman. * Pornography as Sex Discrimination C. A. MacKinnon. Varieties Of Rape And Sexual Assault * Child Sexual Abuse Ellen Bass. * These Are the Things I Remember Maggie Hoyal. * White Man Wants a Black Piece: The Case of Sonia Morrell D.E.H. Russell. * Fraternities and Rape on Campus Patricia Yancey Martin and Robert A. Hummer. * Types of Marital Rape David Finkelhor and Kersti Yllo. * The Sexual Politics of Murder Jane Caputi. * Making Female Bodies the Battlefield Susan Brownmiller. * Dispatch from Bosnia-Herzegovina: A Seventeen-Year-Old Survivor Testifies to Systematic Rape Nina Kadc. * For a Paralyzed Woman Raped and Murdered While Alone in Her Own Apartment Leslie A. Donovan. Rape And The Legal System * Is it Rape? Susan Estrich. * Jack and Ken T. Beneke. * Discrediting Victims Allegations of Sexual Assault: Prosecutorial Accounts of Case Rejections Lisa Frohmann. * Rape, Racism, and the Law Jennifer Wriggins. * Rape-Law Reform: Its Nature, Origins, and Impact Ronald J. Berger, Patricia Searles, and W. Lawrence Neuman. Surviving And Preventing Rape * Rape Trauma Syndrome Ann Wolbert Burgess. * When You Grow Up an Abused Child Christina Glendenning. * Raped: A Male Survivor Breaks His Silence Fred Pelka. * And He Turned Around and Ran Away Gail Groves. * Conclusion P. Searles and R. J. Berger. * Our Stunning Harvest E. Bass.

CONFLICTING IDEOLOGIES AND THE POLITICS OF PORNOGRAPHY

This article analyzes positions on pornography using Q-methodology. Eighty-five respondents sorted a sample of 86 opinion statements on definitions of pornography, personal reactions to it, its causes and effects, and social policy recommendations. Factor analysis was used to identify clusters of individuals in the United States who share common subjectively defined points of view on pornography. The three patterns of responses that emerged from the analysis were labeled Religious-Conservative, Liberal, and Antipornography Feminist. Using the empirical data, we examine the logical and ethical structures of these points of view and their political and legal implications. We conclude that the viewpoints are too incompatible to sustain stable and effective political alignments among the adherents.

The Impact of Rape Law Reform: An Aggregate Analysis of Police Reports and Arrests

This aggregate analysis of rape law reform in 48 states complements existing individual-level studies by providing a picture of the nationwide impact of the reforms. A theoretical model of rape law impact is developed, and the effects of several reform measures on official rape rates are examined through multiple regression analyses that control for contextual and etiological factors. The results indicate that rape law reform is for the most part unrelated to rape rates, although there are departures from this pattern. In particular, there are significant effects of an index of definitional reforms and a variable that measures the criminalization of nonconsensual sexual contacts not involving clearly demonstrable force or other extreme circumstances. There are also interactive effects between law reform and contextual variables, as well as direct effects of contextual and etiological variables.

NAVIGATING THE TERRAIN OF MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT: PATIENT DECISION MAKING AND UNCERTAINTY

Medical uncertainty is recognized as a critical issue in the sociology of diagnosis and medical sociology more generally, but a neglected focus of this concern is the question of patient decision making. Using a mixed methods approach that draws upon autoethnographic accounts and third-party interviews, we aim to illuminate the dilemmas of patient decision making in the face of uncertainty. How do patients and supportive caregivers go about navigating this state of affairs? What types of patient–doctor/healthcare professional relationships hinder or enhance effective patient decision making? These are the themes we explore in this study by following patients through the sequence of experiencing symptoms, seeking a diagnosis, evaluating treatment protocols, and receiving treatments. In general, three genres of culturally available narratives are revealed in the data: strategic, technoluxe, and unbearable health narratives.

Thank You for Your Words: Observations from a Disability Summer Camp

This article recounts the authors’ experiences at the Authentic Voices of America summer camp for severely disabled youths who are learning to become more proficient at using computerized communication devices to speak. The five-day camp was founded by Jon Feucht, who also uses a device and continues to serve as its director. In the summer of 2011, Feucht invited sociologist Ron Berger to attend the camp as part of a collaborative research project about Feucht’s life story. This article is written in Berger’s voice, but includes excerpts from Feucht’s “Straight Talks” that he gave at the camp as well as his views about living with a severe disability. By way of conclusion, insights from critical disability studies and crip theory are also considered.

To Be or Not to Be: The Holocaust and Jewish Identity in the Postwar Era

In this essay I recount my engagement with my fathers experience of the Holocaust and its impact on my professional career and way of thinking about the world. The voices of survivors like my father are no longer silenced and marginalized as they once were, but the legacy of the trauma they endured remains in dispute. As such, I consider questions of Jewish identity and continuity in the postwar era as well as controversies about Israels role in the Middle East, especially as the latter is a source of contention within the political left. I conclude with some observations about particularistic and universalistic identities that mark the path toward expanded human liberation.

Disability and Life History Research: An Autoethnography of Qualitative Inquiry

In this article the author shares his experience doing life history research with people with disabilities. Berger begins with a brief explanation of how his biographical trajectory brought him to an interest in disability. He then considers the tradition of emancipatory disability research in the context of qualitative inquiry more generally, then his research with Melvin Juette and the world of wheelchair basketball, and last his work with Jon Feucht and the world of augmentative communication.