Dr. Sara DiazWGST 202: Gender, Difference, and PowerGonzaga University

Gender-Based Violence

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A NOTE ABOUT SELF-CARE

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” – Audre Lorde

UN Definition of Violence

Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty whether occurring in public or private life.

Expanded Definition

Violence is any relation, process, or condition by which an individual or a group violates the physical, social, and/or psychological integrity of another person or group. From this perspective, violence inhibits human growth, negates inherent potential, limits productive living, and causes death.

IPV, Rape & Power

• Shared individual experiences of violence -> Systemic problem• Personal is Political

• Feminists think about violence in terms of power• Power -> Hegemonic Masculinity

• Unnamed Conspirator• Old theories of rape – sexually motivated• Stranger in the bushes

• 85% of rape is committed by people we know• Rape is more akin to IPV (intimate partner violence)

than random/sexually motivated crime

Project of Definition

• Intimate Partner Violence• Acquaintance Rape• Date Rape• Marital Rape• Childhood Sexual

Abuse• Stranger Rape

• “Legitimate” Rape• Forcible Rape• Statutory Rape

Types of Abuse

Cycle of Abuse

Why Doesn’t She/He Leave?• Economic dependence• Homelessness• Single-parenthood

• Immigrant visa status• Airing dirty laundry (marginalized communities)• LGBT Communities • Culture of victim blaming• Psychology of co-dependence, internalized oppression

• Threat of violence INCREASES when women leave.• Women are most likely to killed by a partner AFTER they leave.

Interventions• Police• Can escalate violence• Victim blaming

• Shelters & Hotlines• Underground “railroads”

• Violence Against Women Act (VAWA• 1994

• Rape Shield Laws• Legal aid• Community programs: shelters, hotlines, prevention, etc

• 2013• Gives limited jurisdiction to tribal courts over non-native

perpetrators of sexual assault against tribal women on tribal lands.• Expanded protections for trafficked women.

Root Causes

• According to Grove and Kim, what are the root causes of intimate partner violence?• Why is it important to understand the

construction of hegemonic masculinity in relation to violence?

Rape Culture

•Who/What is the “unnamed conspirator”?•What characterizes our society as a

culture of gender based-violence?

•How do we define “rape culture”?

Effects of Sexual Violence?

• Given the relationship between colonialism and sexual violence, is it useful to think about such violence as "systematic"? Why/Why not?

• According to Smith, what are the effects of violence?•Micro?•Meso?•Macro?

Bystanders

•How could Tony Porter have reacted differently in the situation he found himself?•How might we raise boys to advocate

rather than simply abstaining, like Porter did?

Violence Interventions

•What interventions do Kim and Grove suggest?•How can we enact these suggestions

in our own communities?