Diana E. H. Russell

{{Infobox writer

| name = Diana Russell

| image =

| caption =

| birth_name = Diana Elizabeth Hamilton Russell

| birth_date = {{birth date|1938|11|6|df=y}}

| birth_place = Cape Town, South Africa

| alma_mater = University of Cape Town, London School of Economics, Harvard University

| death_date = {{death date and age|2020|7|28|1938|11|6|df=y}}

| death_place = Berkeley, California, US

| occupation = Professor emerita, feminist, author, and activist

| period = 1967–2020

| movement = Women's rights, human rights, Anti-Apartheid Movement

| website = {{URL|http://dianarussell.com}}

}}

Diana E. H. Russell (6 November 1938 – 28 July 2020)[https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?n=diana-russell&pid=196561653 Diana Russell] was a feminist writer and activist.{{cite web|title=Biography|url=http://www.dianarussell.com/bio.html|work=DianaRussell.com|access-date=13 April 2012}} Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, she moved to England in 1957, and then to the United States in 1961. For the past 45 years she was engaged in research on sexual violence against women and girls. She wrote numerous books and articles on rape, including marital rape, femicide, incest, misogynist murders of women, and pornography. For The Secret Trauma, she was co-recipient of the 1986 C. Wright Mills Award. She was also the recipient of the 2001 Humanist Heroine Award from the American Humanist Association.{{cite web|title=Humanist Heroines: Recipients|url=http://www.americanhumanist.org/What_We_Do/Feminist_Caucus/Humanist_Heroines/Recipients|publisher=American Humanist Association|access-date=13 April 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120513211248/http://www.americanhumanist.org/What_We_Do/Feminist_Caucus/Humanist_Heroines/Recipients|archive-date=13 May 2012}} She was also an organizer of the First International Tribunal on Crimes against Women, in Brussels in March 1976.Russell, Diana E. H. Dangerous Relationships: Pornography, Misogyny, and Rape, SAGE Publications, 1998, {{ISBN|0-7619-0525-1}}, p 205

Early life

Russell was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, a twin and the fourth of the six children of a South African father, James Hamilton Russell, and a British mother, Kathleen Mary (née Gibson) Russell. She attended Herschel Girls' School, an Anglican boarding school for girls.{{Cite news|last=Seelye|first=Katharine Q.|date=9 August 2020|title=Diana Russell, 81, Activist Who Studied Violence Against Women, Dies|volume=169|page=A27|work=New York Times|issue=58780|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/obituaries/diana-russell-dead.html|access-date=9 August 2020}}{{cite news |title=Diana Russell obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/diana-russell-obituary-zf0zvpb8h |work=The Times |date=5 October 2020 |language=en}} After completing her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Cape Town, at the age of 19, Russell left for Britain.

In Britain, she enrolled in a Post-Graduate Diploma in Social Science and Administration at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 1961, she passed the Diploma with Distinction and also received the prize for the best student in the program.{{Cite web|url=http://www.dianarussell.com/bio.html|title=Biography of Diana E. H. Russell, Ph.D.|website=www.dianarussell.com|access-date=14 November 2017}} She moved to the United States, in 1963 where she had been accepted into an interdisciplinary PhD program at Harvard University. Her research focused on sociology and the study of revolution.

Russell's radical activism began with her involvement in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. In 1963, Russell had joined the Liberal Party of South Africa that had been founded by Alan Paton, the author of Cry the Beloved Country. While participating in a peaceful protest in Cape Town, Russell was arrested with other party members. She came to the conclusion that non-violent strategies were futile against the brutal violence and repression of the white Afrikaner police state. Thereafter, she joined the African Resistance Movement (ARM), an underground revolutionary movement fighting apartheid in South Africa. The principal strategy of the ARM was to bomb and sabotage government property, and though Russell was only a peripheral member of the ARM, she still risked a 10-year incarceration if caught. Russell's analysis of strategies and tactics for social and political change is detailed in her book, Rebellion, Revolution, and Armed Force: A Comparative Study of Fifteen Countries with Special Emphasis on Cuba and South Africa (1974).{{Cite book|title=Rebellion, Revolution, and Armed Force|url=https://www.elsevier.com/books/rebellion-revolution-and-armed-force/russell/978-0-12-785745-9|website=Elsevier|date=3 September 2013 |isbn=978-0-12-785745-9 |last1=Russell |first1=Diana E. H. |publisher=Academic Press }}

Research and writings on rape and sexual abuse

Rape and other forms of men's sexual exploitation and abuse of women was one of the primary focuses of Russell's research and writings. In her book, The Politics of Rape (1975), Russell suggested that rape was a display of socially defined perceptions of masculinity instead of deviant social behavior. Her other books in this area are Rape in Marriage (1982), Sexual Exploitation: Rape, Child Sexual Abuse, and Workplace Harassment (1984). In 1986, Russell published The Secret Trauma: Incest in the Lives of Girls and Women (1986). It was one of the first scientific research studies of incestuous sexual abuse to be published. For it she received the C.Wright Mills Award in 1986. In 1993, she edited an anthology on pornography, Making Violence Sexy: Feminist Views on Pornography. Her 1994 book, Against Pornography: The Evidence of Harm, which includes 100 pornographic photos, was a study establishing how pornography encourages men to rape and leads to increased incidents of rape.

Organizing the First International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women

Russell lobbied other feminists for two years and eventually was successful in organizing the first International Tribunal on Crimes against Women in Brussels, Belgium, in 1976. The conference which lasted for four days, in which individual women from different countries testified to their personal experiences of various forms of violence and oppressions because of their gender, was attended by 2,000 women from 40 countries. By the second day it had dissolved into disaster, as "radical activists were storming the stage one after another in an improvised free-for-fall".[https://newrepublic.com/femicide-guatemala-decree-22 On "Femicide"], newrepublic.com; accessed 1 June 2015.

Simone de Beauvoir in her introductory speech to the Tribunal said: "I salute the International Tribunal as the beginning of the radical decolonization of women." Later, Belgian feminist and journalist Nicole Van de Ven documented with Diana the event in a book, [https://www.amazon.com/Crimes-Against-Women-Proceedings-International/dp/0960362851/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338551772&sr=1-2 Crimes Against Women: The Proceedings of the International Tribunal] (1976).

Redefining and politicizing "femicide"

In 1976 Russell redefined 'femicide', as "the killing of females by males because they are female." At the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women, she testified to numerous examples of lethal forms of male violence against women and girls from different cultures around the world. Russell's intention was to politicize the term, and bring attention to the misogyny driving these lethal crimes against women, which she said gender-neutral terms like murder don't do. Russell who was puzzled about the lack of response of women's groups in the United States to the use of the term 'femicide' continued to advocate the use of 'femicide' to women's groups in the United States and around the world. She explained that in order to deal with these extreme crimes against women, it is necessary to recognize that like race-based hate crimes, "Femicides are [also] lethal hate crimes", and that most killings of women by men are "extreme manifestations of male dominance and sexism."{{cite news|author=Aaron Shulman|title=The Rise of Femicide: Can Naming A Crime Help Prevent It?|newspaper=The New Republic|date=29 December 2010|url=http://www.tnr.com/femicide-guatemala-decree-22|access-date=1 June 2012}}

In 1993, Russell initiated an organization called Women United Against Incest, which supports incest survivors with legal assistance against their perpetrators. Similarly, she created the first TV program in South Africa where incest survivors talk in person about their experiences.{{Cite web|url=http://www.dianarussell.com/political_actions.html|title=Political Actions|website=www.dianarussell.com|access-date=7 April 2017}}

Feminist movements in many countries in Latin America, as in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Chile, and El Salvador among others, have adopted the use of Russell's politicized 'Femicide' and have successfully used it socially, politically and legally to address lethal violence against women in their respective countries.{{cite news|author=Diana E. H. Russell|title="Femicide" – The Power of a Name|newspaper=Women's Media Center|date=5 October 2011|url=http://www.womensmediacenter.com/feature/entry/femicidethe-power-of-a-name|access-date=1 June 2012}} In 1992, she co-edited an anthology, [https://www.amazon.com/Femicide-The-Politics-Woman-Killing/dp/0805790284 Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing].

Other

In 1977, Russell became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP).{{Cite web|url=http://www.wifp.org/who-we-are/associates/|title=Associates {{!}} The Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press|website=www.wifp.org|language=en-US|access-date=21 June 2017}} WIFP is an American nonprofit publishing organization. The organization works to increase communication between women and connect the public with forms of women-based media.

Works

=Books=

{{cite book | last = Russell | first = Diana E. H. | title = The politics of rape: the victim's perspective | publisher = Stein and Day | location = New York | date = 1974 | isbn = 9780812816570 | oclc = 1165996 | url = https://archive.org/details/politicsofrapevi0000russ }}
{{cite book | last = Russell | first = Diana E. H. | title = Rebellion, revolution and armed force: comparative study of fifteen countries with special emphasis on Cuba and South Africa | publisher = Academic Press | location = New York | date = 1975 | isbn = 9780127857459 | oclc = 886393 | url = https://archive.org/details/rebellionrevolut0000russ }}
{{cite book | last1 = Russell | first1 = Diana E .H. | last2 = van de Ven | first2 = Nicole | title = Crimes against women: international tribunal proceedings | publisher = Les-Femmes Publishing | location = Millbrae, California | date = 1976 | isbn = 9780890879214 | oclc = 2464570 | url = https://archive.org/details/crimesagainstwom00inte_0 }} Conference proceedings.
{{cite book | last1 = Russell | first1 = Diana E. H. | last2 = Star | first2 = Susan | last3 = Linden | first3 = Robin Ruth | last4 = Pagano | first4 = Darlene R. | author-link2 = Susan Leigh Star | title = Against sadomasochism: a radical feminist analysis | publisher = Frog in the Well | location = East Palo Alto, California | date = 1982 | isbn = 9780960362837 | oclc = 7877113| title-link = Against Sadomasochism: A Radical Feminist Analysis }}
{{cite book | last = Russell | first = Diana E. H. | title = Sexual exploitation: rape, child sexual abuse, and workplace harassment | url = https://archive.org/details/sexualexploitati155russ | url-access = registration | publisher = SAGE | location = Beverly Hills, California | date = 1984 | isbn = 9780803923553 | oclc = 10696523}}
{{cite book | last = Russell | first = Diana E. H. | title = The secret trauma: incest in the lives of girls and women | url = https://archive.org/details/secrettraumaince00russ | url-access = registration | publisher = Basic Books | location = New York | date = 1986 | isbn = 9780465075966 | oclc = 12974265}}
{{cite book | last = Russell | first = Diana E. H. | title = Exposing nuclear phallacies | url = https://archive.org/details/exposingnuclearp00russ | url-access = registration | publisher = Pergamon Press | location = New York | date = 1989 | isbn = 9780080364759 | oclc = 18625199}}
{{cite book | last = Russell | first = Diana E. H. | title = Lives of courage: women for a New South Africa | url = https://archive.org/details/livesofcouragewo00russ | url-access = registration | publisher = Basic Books | location = New York | date = 1989 | isbn = 9780465041404 | oclc = 19723691}}
{{cite book | last = Russell | first = Diana E. H. | title = Rape in marriage | url = https://archive.org/details/rapeinmarriage0000russ | url-access = registration | publisher = Indiana University Press | location = Bloomington, Indiana | date = 1990 | isbn = 9780253205636 | oclc = 8451646}}
{{cite book | last1 = Russell | first1 = Diana E. H. | last2 = Radford | first2 = Jill | title = Femicide: the politics of woman killing | publisher = Twayne Publishers | location = New York Toronto | date = 1992 | isbn = 9780805790283 | oclc = 25367570 }} [http://www.dianarussell.com/f/femicde%28small%29.pdf Front cover.]
{{cite book | last = Russell | first = Diana E. H. | title = Against pornography: the evidence of harm | publisher = Russell Publishing | location = Berkeley, California | date = September 1993 | isbn = 9780963477613 | oclc = 29988342 }}
{{cite book | last = Russell | first = Diana E. H. | title = Making violence sexy: feminist views on pornography | publisher = Open University Press | location = Buckingham | date = December 1993 |isbn= 9780335192007 | oclc = 27106001 }}
{{cite book | last1 = Russell | first1 = Diana E. H. | others = Jo Campling (consulting editor) | title = Behind closed doors in White South Africa: incest survivors tell their stories | publisher = St Martin's Press | location = New York | date = 1997 | isbn = 9780312173753 | oclc = 36066137 }}
{{cite book | last = Russell | first = Diana E. H. | title = Dangerous relationships: pornography, misogyny and rape | publisher = SAGE | location = Thousand Oaks, California | date = 1998 | isbn = 9780761905257 | oclc = 38257798}}
{{cite book | last1 = Russell | first1 = Diana E. H. | last2 = Bolen | first2 = Rebecca M. | title = The epidemic of rape and child sexual abuse in the United States | publisher = SAGE | location = Thousand Oaks, California | date = 2000 | isbn = 9780761903024 | oclc = 43384742 }}
{{cite book | last1 = Russell | first1 = Diana E. H. | last2 = Harmes | first2 = Roberta A. | title = Femicide in global perspective | publisher = Teachers College Press | location = New York | date = 2001 | isbn = 9780807740477 | oclc= 45304762 }}

= Chapters in books =

{{Cite book | last = Russell | first = Diana E. H. | contribution = Research on how women experience the impact of pornography | editor1-last = Copp | editor1-first = David | editor2-last = Wendell | editor2-first = Susan | title = Pornography and censorship | publisher = Prometheus Books | location = Buffalo, New York | year = 1983 | isbn = 9780879751821 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/pornographycenso00copp }}
{{Cite book | last = Russell | first = Diana E. H. | contribution = Nikki Craft: Inspiring protest: Introduction | editor1-last = Russell | editor1-first = Diana E. H. | editor2-last = Radford | editor2-first = Jill | editor-link1 = Diana E. H. Russell | title = Femicide: the politics of woman killing | pages = 325–327 | publisher = Twayne Publishers | location = New York Toronto | date = 1992 | isbn = 9780805790283 }} [http://www.nikkicraft.com/articles/russellcraftprotests.pdf Pdf.]

::See also:

:::[http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/Porn/stackowheatsfemicide1992.pdf "The incredible case of the Stack o' Wheat prints"] by Nikki Craft pp. 327-331.

:::[http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/Porn/stackowheatsfemicide1992.pdf "The evidence of pain"] by D. A. Clarke pp. 331–336.

:::[http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/Porn/rampage1femicide1991.pdf "The rampage against Penthouse"] by Melissa Farley pp. 339–345.

{{Cite book | last = Russell | first = Diana E. H. | contribution = Pornography causes violence | editor-last = Cothran | editor-first = Helen | title = Pornography | pages = 48–51 | publisher = Greenhaven Press | location = San Diego, California | series = Opposing Viewpoints series | year = 2002 | isbn = 9780737707601 | oclc = 45698745 }} Series editors: Mary E. Odom and Jody Clay-Warner.
{{Cite book | last = Russell | first = Diana E. H. | contribution = Russell's theory: exposure to child pornography as a cause of child sexual victimization | editor1-last = Tankard Reist | editor1-first = Melinda | editor2-last = Bray | editor2-first = Abigail | editor-link1 = Melinda Tankard Reist | title = Big Porn Inc.: exposing the harms of the global pornography industry | pages = 181–194 | publisher = Spinifex Press | location = North Melbourne, Victoria | year = 2011 | isbn = 9781876756895 }}