Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
10-2014
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program
Liberal Studies
Advisor
Shifra Sharlin
Subject Categories
Women's Studies
Abstract
My paper takes as its central focus the trials of Inez Garcia, a woman who was charged with the murder of a man who helped rape her in Soledad, CA in 1974. Garcia's trial in 1974, in which she was convicted of second-degree murder, and her retrial in 1977, in which the ruling was reversed, is often remembered as a cause célèbre of the second-wave women's movement that united diverse activists and yielded a major feminist legal victory. However, I argue that close examination of the trial and the feminist activism around it reveals a more paradoxical legacy. First, I track how Garcia functioned as both a literal and figurative political cause in which myriad second-wave feminists mapped out a highly conflicting politics of self-defense in her name. Second, I contend that the trial has had minimal impact on the broader feminist antiviolence movement.
Recommended Citation
Feulner, Megan Elizabeth, ""Women Have the Right to Fight!": The Contested Legacy of Second-Wave Feminism and Anti-Rape Politics in the Trials of Inez Garcia, 1974-1977" (2014). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/485
