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SEXIST ABUSE IS a global social issue and so is its representation. The broad category of gender-based violence (GBV), which includes any violent act carried out because of the victim’s gender, is an inherently political one as it is rooted in feminist ideology.
Following the establishment of this concept, the feminist perspective has entered the political and media discourses and has, in some cases, successfully managed to impact on the formulation of legal measures to oppose the phenomenon. An example of such is the ratification by numerous countries (excluding Ireland) of the Istanbul Convention, a document drafted by the Council of Europe in 2011, providing a legal framework on preventing and combating GBV.
Meanwhile, a growing number of narratives that have focused on GBV demonstrate a deep knowledge of the theme and showcase an explicit (although not unproblematic) feminist outlook (eg Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, all novels adapted into successful movies).
The representation of GBV
Notwithstanding the laudable results achieved by these narratives, many ethical issues persist when considering the representation of GBV. In particular, there are three directions that feminist activists and scholars should follow in order to demand a fully respectful portrayal of sexist abuse.
First, it is necessary to overcome the most persistent and fundamental problem: that of enduring misogyny. The discourse, which the feminist voice has successfully influenced by breaking the silence that used to hide GBV, is, at many levels, still a sexist one.
Even though explicit chauvinism has become socially unacceptable, forms of benevolent sexism abound. The victim’s agency, for example, is often not fully acknowledged and women are frequently depicted as weak subjects or are denied their subjectivity when identified as mothers or wives rather than as individuals.
At the same time, a tendency to spectacularise and oversexualise the phenomenon is frequent in a number of artistic and media portrayals, despite the patina of political correctness and the declared feminist outlook of the text’s producer (an example of such can be found in the BBC’s The Fall, a series that scholars and critics have criticised for its supposed glamorisation of GBV).
Moreover, more subtle types of gender-based discrimination should be labelled as misogynistic violence but these are neither identified as such in the legal sphere nor in the arena of mainstream representation. For example, in the case of Ireland, it is crucial to mention the limited access to reproductive rights, an issue that, in this country, affects the physical and mental health of thousands of women.
Re-thinking feminist insights along a racial dimension
After addressing these more longstanding issues, a second direction of action is also needed to update and re-think feminist insights along a racial dimension. Following the pressures of globalisation and the intensification of migration flows, a racist rhetoric has recently contaminated European political discourse, as demonstrated in the recent surge in far right-wing politics both in Europe and the United States.
Research has demonstrated that the portrayal of gender abuse is often misused in order to justify discriminatory and even racist speech. For example, earlier this year, Italian politician, Debora Serracchiani, commented on a rape case perpetrated by a refugee stating: “Sexual violence is always a vicious act, but it’s socially and morally even more unacceptable when it is carried out by someone who receives hospitality in our country”.
Such a statement suggests a hierarchy among perpetrators, with some considered as guiltier than others (ie immigrants and refugees) for the same crime. Such thinking might also suggest a similar hierarchy among victims, with some considered as more innocent than others (ie native Italians). Such statements by public figures remind us of how powerful and sometimes dangerous our representative strategies can be if not supported by a strong and inclusive ethical perspective.
Binary conceptions of GBV
The third direction that feminist activists and scholars should follow is to move beyond binary conceptions of GBV. So far, feminist portrayals of sexist violence have mainly addressed the issue of male violence against women. It is, however, also crucial to give visibility to other forms of patriarchal violence that affect groups and individuals such as the LGBTQ community and to overcome the rigidly dichotomous depiction that considers women as the only possible victims and men as the only possible perpetrators.
This polarisation, which is still the dominant model of description in many fields and which can be read as another form of oversimplification of the feminist discourse, does not do justice to the phenomenon of GBV, a complex socio-political issue that deserves a clear, sharp and engaged, but at the same time never banal or sectarian, representation.
Feminism is a practice that always needs to be re-negotiated and the inclusivity of our feminist discourse must be continually re-affirmed. It is our argument that if we follow these three directions, producers and critics of texts that deal with GBV can engage with this complex issue in a more ethical and comprehensive manner. Such an engagement is, in our opinion, crucial given that systems of representation tend to bear directly on the lives of real people because they establish habits of thought that can lead to action.
Nicoletta Mandolini is a PhD candidate at University College Cork. Funded by the Irish Research Council, her project focuses on the representation of gender based violence and feminicide in contemporary Italian narratives. Dr Caroline Williamson came to University College Cork as a Lecturer in World Languages in February 2015. Before joining UCC, she was a Teaching Associate at the University of Nottingham where she also obtained her PhD in French and Francophone Studies. They both organised the IRC New Foundations workshop “Representing Gender-Based Violence. Establishing an Interdisciplinary International Network”, held in UCC last May 22 and 23.
If you have been affected by domestic abuse and would like to talk, you can contact Women’s Aid: 1800 341 900 or Amen (for men): 046 902 3718.
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The feminist movement is dead, it already achieved it’s goals in the west years ago and the monster that’s left is discredited by overlooking and making excuses for genuine feminist issues in the middle east.
@Dean Burroughs: More women have been killed by ex or current partners than there have been US troops killed in Afghanistan, Iraq and citizens killed in terror attacks between 2000 and 2012 (FBI statitistics). Yeah, why do we need feminism? What gender based violence? Idiot.
@Ser Barristan Selmy: Most murderers are men. When women start killing men in their droves nobody will speak in terms of GBV because it will simply be “violence”. Until then, one gender is firmly the aggressor. And that’s not really up for debate.
@Ser Barristan Selmy: Here is an interesting Vice article about the work of 2 Manchester University professors about violence carried out by men against women. It is a complete lie to imply there isn’t a gender/sexuality issue to it. Here’s a brief review of that https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.vice.com/amp/sv/article/jmagx8/why-men-murder-women-interview-477 Also, your second comment to me was just repetition of the first…
@Titus Groan:
If you’re using Vice as a source then there’s no helping you at this point.
@Thought for Food: It’s an interview and the research is referred to. You can look it up yourself. You’re like the “smart” chaps who complain about being linked to Wikipedia articles because “you can’t cite Wikipedia!!” when you clearly can if it’s been properly cited. LOOK AT THE CITATION. Using the platform that the research appears on isn’t a valid argument. It’s a study by 2 professors from a world renowned university.
@Titus Groan: Men, in general, act physically while women abuse in other more psychological ways, including incitement of men towards violence. UCC has become a loonie left haven and i won’t be sending my kids there (unless they want to study engineering or medicine but I’ll be warning them about the noxious third wave feminist atmosphere that exists there.
@Titus Groan: you mangina you’re an embarrassment :-)
@Dean Burroughs: See… You’re literally a sexist tw@t ironically complaining about feminism when you make gender based insults like that. Can’t handle the chat, nah? I think you’re a bit thick, to be honest. It’s palpable.
@Dean Burroughs: Level with me right… are you one of those uneducated, “went to the school of life” chaps? Because that’s what I think. Think you’re a bit insecure. Think you think you’re smart but have nothing to your name. Basically what I’m asking is… are you someone I make fun of after a few drinks? Me thinks so.
@Titus Groan: I’d imagine you’d need a few drinks to make fun of anyone mate, it would give you the courage to take your beating.
“[M]ore subtle types of gender-based discrimination should be labelled as misogynistic violence [...]. For example, in the case of Ireland, it is crucial to mention the limited access to reproductive rights”
I’ve always been somewhat sympathetic towards (some of) the arguments for abortion but this attempt by the authors to have our abortion laws classified as ‘misogynistic violence’ is definitely going too far. I don’t think devaluing the word ‘violence’ like that will help at all in combating GBV.
Things like female genital mutilation go on en-masse across the globe – that’s misogynistic violence. Portraying the complicated abortion stalemate as somehow being on the same playing field as something like FGM is just out of order.
@neilo: in the case of rape or incest it is not
@neilo: No. the victims still have the same issues around reproductive rights and are female , so no difference.
@Paul Fahey: What happens if the unborn child is female and is terminated on that basis? Would that be gender based violence perpetrated by a female on a female?
@Thomas McGilly: oh dear, the very fact that men like you demand a say over the uterus and reproductive rights of total strangers speaks volumes about where women are positioned in Irish life.
@Paul Fahey: Yet you can’t answer the question.
@Thomas McGilly: you see Thomas, I would not class it as violence and I do not recognise the rights of an “unborn child” superseding that of a “born woman”, odd that. Therefore I would see it as a medical procedure and ultimately none of your bloody business. In the same way I do not believe it is any woman’s business, particularly strangers, should you wish to have a vasectomy.
@Paul Fahey: A vasectomy doesn’t end a life. Abortion does. What a pathetic and sociopathic comparison!
This article, unfortunately, was written in the academic style used for a dissertation. Though the information is definitely thought provoking, presentation in a more casual style would lead to greater understanding and/or discussion.
@Rathminder: academic style? It’s absolute gibberish and jargon (the opposite of true academic writing,which should be clear and concise
@Hughiealonso: Eh? Academic writing is full of “jargon” (technical terms) and typically assumes the reader is somewhat educated in the subject at hand. Have you ever read a thesis?
@Titus Groan: Yes and I’ve written one. Granted it was a scientific one.
@Titus Groan: Well, so was mine. And it is not readily readible to the average person any more than a paper on histone deacetylation is on Pubmed.
@Titus Groan: Academic writing in most disciplines uses technical terms, not words which mean the opposite of their intended meaning. Postmodern academic writing, including academic feminism, says that meaning is subjective, except of course for itself. This is what allows it to claim that speech is violence, violence is speech and opposing mysoginistic ideology is gender based violence.
It is compete tosh and should be treated as such.
“Feminism is a practice that always needs to be re-negotiated and the inclusivity of our feminist discourse must be continually re-affirmed”
There is no such thing as inclusivity in the Feminist movement. You either agree with Feminism or you’re labeled a misogynist.
@neilo: Ah yes. Descent into childish playground language. That’ll help resolve the issue.
It’s hard to know where to begin with this nonsense. Maybe just laugh at the idea that Gone Girl is a feminist perspective on gender based violence.
I’d love to know what the authors’ opinion on the cologne sex attacks and the patriarchy/ misogyny found in Islam. There are places in the world where GBV is not only acceptable it’s part of the culture and legal system. Yet when people object to a substantial flow of young men who grew up in such societies coming to Europe they’re somehow misappropriating feminist “insights”, to the point they need to rethink them. How about being consistent in your ideology and stop making excuses. They’re bending over backwards and literally going against the foundational ideas of feminism. The doublethink is amazing!
Another pedantic, politically correct and entirely hollow article on the subject of gender abuse. I keep reading them hoping for some interesting content and keep getting disappointed.
@Ths Fer: Maybe because statistically, you won’t be a victim of it, it’s of less personal importance to you. As someone equally unlikely to be affected by it (due to my Y chronosome) I take an interest as a responsible citizen.
@Titus Groan: Good for you Titus. Do your farts smell amazing?
@Thomas McGilly: Like pomegranate and orange blossom. Thank you for asking.
Feminists have won the war. Now they are busy punishing the defeated for the sins of their fathers
You say founded by the Irish Research Council. I assume you mean funded.
Violent men are a major threat to women and also to men. They are a small minority and they are a huge drain on society. Without violent men our streets would be safer our cities would be a joy and even traffic would be less dangerous. Feminism is doing a good job in identifying and analysing violence as a huge problem for all of us. In relationships jealousy and possessiveness are both forms of violence in themselves and can lead to more serious violence. Both men and women can be perpetrators and murder is sometimes the end result. It is in all our interests to have it identified and analysed.
In 2010 the CDC National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey focused for the first time on victimisation by sexual orientation. It found that the prevalence of victimisation was as follows, bi-sexual women 61.1%, lesbians 43.8%, bi-sexual men 37.3%, heterosexual women 35%, heterosexual men 29% and homosexual men 26%.
@Vernon Tweed: cdc.gov/violenceprevention/nisvs/index.html
To garner esteem among my pseudo-intellectual contemporaries, I now refer to absolutely everything I express an opinion on as “the text”.
Yesterday evening, for example, my partner and I were leaving home to attend an all-female stage adaptation of Three Men in a Boat when she inquired, “Does my bum look big in this?”
I replied, “The text, though epic in scale, presumably owing to continual objectification by the patriarchy, must not be placed in a spurious hierarchy of victims. The disapproval of the male gaze is, after all, a clear cut form of gender-based violence. The text, a diptych of which each part comprises one immense buttock, is therefore in every sense as much a victim of the patriarchy as a sex slave in a dungeon or a woman about whom a mild sexist comment has been whispered in her absence.”
Sadly, by the time I had finished citing 98 references from the literature, we had missed the play.
@Zozzy Zozimus: 99% of the people (men) who give you a thumbs up have no idea what you said. On account of the fact they’re dumb.
@Titus Groan: Ordinarily, I’d object that it’s premature to judge the hoard of green-thumbers who I expect will soon elevate my modest contribution to the dizzy heights of this comment section. In this case however, since it’s men we’re talking about, I suppose we might as well just go ahead and put the boot in right away.
Although Im pro-choice, but with regulations, I dont understand how a prohibition on abortion is a form of gender violence when more women than men are opposed to abortion.
The Labour party in Britain are dealing with the issue of gender based violence conflated with racism by sacking MPs & councillors from prominent positions who dare to point out that Pakistani men from Muslim backgrounds are disproportionately over represented in sexual offence statistics than any other ethnic group.
@AR Devine: The racist aspect of this phenomenon is that the Pakistani men deliberately targeted white girls and some Indian sikhs for abuse.
I was only just saying this myself the other day & then I heard people on the street having a conservation about it as well.
What did she say!?
@Con Murphy: In short – nothing really.
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