Gender and Political Apology: When the Patriarchal State Says "Sorry"

This book provides a much-needed gendered reading to the increasingly important practice of political apology.

Engaging in depth with two cases of interstate apologies for conflict-related sexual violence – Japan’s apologies for the South Korean "comfort women" and US apologies for the Abu Ghraib scandal – the author argues that political apologies are particularly "excitable" or uncontrollable forms of speech which are composed of and rearticulate historically constituted gender norms. In d...