The civility of the privileged: Assessing the narrative around Australia's marriage equality campaign
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Title
Gender, Feminism and Queer Studies: Power, Privilege and Inequality in a Time of Neoliberal Conservatism
Publisher
Routledge / Taylor & Francis
School
School of Arts and Humanities
RAS ID
62637
Abstract
This chapter offers a critique of mainstream accounts of civil disobedience (CD) in contemporary political theory. Its goal is to highlight how the notion of “civility” is used as a political tool to sanitise and domesticate social protest. Focusing on Australia’s 2017 marriage equality campaign, the chapter highlights how the dominant conception of “civil” disobedience reproduces the logic of a patriarchal system in which women and non-mainstream men are expected to remain quiet and behave with “decorum”. The chapter draws attention to the peculiarity of the Australian context, where the lack of a bill of rights fosters power inequalities by hindering vulnerable groups’ access to justice. Overall, the chapter highlights the risk of an excessive (or exclusive) focus on the behaviour of protesters, at the expense of the structural injustices they seek to unveil.
DOI
10.4324/9781003316954-21
Access Rights
subscription content
Comments
Moraro, P. (2023). The civility of the privileged: Assessing the narrative around Australia's marriage equality campaign. In D. Bridges, C. Lewis, E. Wulff, C. Litchfield & L. Bamberry (Eds.), Gender, Feminism and Queer Studies: Power, Privilege and Inequality in a Time of Neoliberal Conservatism (pp. 203-215). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003316954-21