Articulating Understanding: A Phenomenological Approach to Testimony on Gendered Violence (original) (raw)

Confession, psychology and the shaping of subjectivity through interviews with victims of female-perpetrated sexual violence

Subjectivity, 2021

Female-perpetrated sexual abuse (FSA) is often seen as rare and of little consequence. Confessing to being a victim of FSA is infrequent and often met with incredulity. Identifying as such a victim is thus often a response to an incitement to speak in the mode of confession. Interviews producing the possibility for such confessions were conducted with ten self-identified South African FSA victims and then analysed using a Foucauldian approach. In identifying as victims of FSA the participants drew on psychologised, gendered accounts of damage reflected in trauma, revictimisation, memory loss, the cycle of abuse and deviance. An analysis of these accounts demonstrates how confessional sites, such as the (psychological) interview, anchor victim worthiness in damage so that 'non-normative' victims of violence are able to see themselves in sexual violence discourse as forever compromised subjects whose healing requires rethinking the relationship between gender, sexuality, and violence in contemporary South Africa.

Rape Culture and Epistemic Violence, Why Testimony goes Unheard..docx

Following Dotson's (2011) account of epistemic violence, this paper proposes that, aside from functioning as a facilitator of sexual violence, rape culture is also a system of epistemic violence. I deconstruct various myths central to rape culture and demonstrate with each the communicative failings that are occurring on behalf of a survivor's interlocutor. Further, I argue for a shift in obligations from speaker to hearer, so that we no longer expect survivors to speak out, thus rendering themselves vulnerable to a myriad of social, economic and political harms. Instead, hearers have obligations to create speakable environments so that testimony regarding sexual violence may be freely and safely forthcoming.

The Study of Gender-Based Violence through a Narrative Approach: Evidence from the European Project IMPROVE

Social Sciences, 2024

Background: Gender-based violence (GBV) remains largely under-reported and underdetected. The European project IMPROVE seeks to identify the needs of victims in terms of facilitating their access to support services and to assist frontline responder organisations in enhancing their competencies and capabilities to make the most of innovative solutions that enable and accelerate policy implementation. Methods: To meet these goals, IMPROVE uses narrative interviews, understood as unstructured tools that produce and analyse stories that are significant in people's lives. These interviews provide the space for rethinking ; there is a reflection on implicit and takenfor-granted norms and insights are given into the life and thoughts of vulnerable groups, in this case, the women victim-survivors of GBV. Results: This methodological approach has led to highquality interviews in which the women involved have felt comfortable, confident, and satisfied, as evidenced by the depth, complexity, and extension of the knowledge generated, and the commitment of the interviewees to the various activities proposed by the researchers. Conclusions: The narrative approach has allowed for a sensitive investigation into the private lives of GBV victimsurvivors and, as a consequence, has contributed to the creation of new knowledge that can provide an in-depth and incisive view of the help offered by frontline responder organisations, from which improvements can be proposed.

Critical Discourse Analysis of Trauma Bonding in Female Victims of Intimate Partner Abuse: A Phenomenological Constructivist Approach

Sustainable Business and Society in Emerging Economies

Purpose: Intimate partner abuse is a socially prevalent issue across cultures. Despite establishing survivor institutes and anti-domestic violence NGOs, the voices of battered women have not yet reached the legal governmental policies. Recent research on IPA indicates that women remain chained to the dangerously controlled and maintained relationship despite its social and psychological repercussions. Exitance of Intimate Partner Abuse has been seen through the lens of criminal activity. Therefore, the perpetuation of IPA is linked to the psychotic and criminal intentions of the perpetrator (Gibbs et al., 2018). Empirical evidence suggests that there is a dearth of data to highlight the female voice on the domestic violence issue. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research design focuses of critically deconstructing the labels, reinforces identities and professed believes mentioned in the article to identify the meaning and motive behind them. This study is built on the socio-cogniti...

Woman’s Attitude as a Victim of Violence: Extending or Narrowing the Gender Gap

2011

This paper discusses the findings of a European Project DAPHNE III in the Cyprus context. Its twofold aim regards: a) the uncovering of the woman‟s attitude as a victim of violence in relation with her feelings and her conscience on the indirect impact of violence against her upon her children if exposed and b) the extracting of an elaborate understanding on the way gender gap is either extended or narrowed by the woman‟s attitude. What the research points out is that: a) violence against women mostly results in survivor behavior focused only on ensuring survival and not on leaving from the abusive relationship and b) the predetermined gendered roles for men and women contribute to the dynamic of violence against women and to the formation of their attitude as victims. The main methodology performed is based on the Project‟s initial phases: a) Data collection from women‟s written testimonies and b) Data Collection from semi-structured interviews with women; both cases concern women ...

Legitimation in discourse: The case of women subjected to violence

ELS Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 2019

This article attempts to analyze the discourse of women subjected to marital violence. In this regard, we will analyze how these women legitimize their discourse through evaluation as a narrative component and as a strategy that aims to establish a mode of argumentation that victimizes them and demonizes the violent husbands. The site from which the data is extracted is a TV talk show “Qesset Nnass” (The story of people) on the Moroccan TV channel Medi 1 TV. Specifically, we will be concerned with the ways women articulate propositions through moral legitimation to send messages that can only be decoded by reference to the cultural variable of language. The stories scrutinized are significant in that they foreground the extreme suffering women are subject to within a patriarchal society that leaves no room for acceptable alternatives at the economic, legal, and social levels.

It is Raining Tears: Voices of Women, Victims of Violence

ACADEME University of Bohol, Graduate School and Professional Studies

Violence against women is a form of men's expressions of controlling women to retain power. These behaviors include physical, emotional, psychological, verbal and economic abuse, threatened or actual use of weapons and destruction of property. The study utilized a qualitative method of research using a phenomenological approach. Four selected informants were individually interviewed in the municipality of Carmen, Bohol, Philippines. The researcher used an interview guide with a voice recorder to safeguard the accuracy of responses of each informant. Moreover, the members of the panel validated the interview guide. Research ethics clearance was secured from the Ethics Review Committee. Eight themes were created. Each subproblem had two themes which were: (1) Wounds from the Hand, Scars on the Mind and Reasons Behind the Scene. (2) Sword Pierced Heart and Scars from Physical and Mental Cruelty. (3) The Living Martyr and Family Over Pain. (4) Caring Ears and Shield from the Defender. Recommendations were the following: strengthening the awareness of women on domestic violence, deepening stakeholders' coordination, further training, and seminars on effective counseling to the PNP and DSWD, and allocation of public funds for temporary shelter and immediate needs of the victims.

Domestic violence: the discourse of women and men involved in criminal proceedings

Escola Anna Nery

This qualitative, descriptive research had the purpose of analyzing the discourse of women and men involved in criminal proceedings on their experience of conjugal violence. Interviews were conducted with men in criminal proceedings for marital violence and the respective testimonies of their companions, contained in case files, were analyzed. Data were organized using the NVIVO® 11 software and the Collective Subject Discourse method. The discourses indicate that the reciprocity of the experience of violence is not recognized by the couple. While the woman sometimes transfers the responsibility of the act to the ingestion of alcohol or to herself, the man minimizes the event and questions the legitimacy of the testimony given by his companion. This points to the importance of the creation of spaces for reeducation in the perspective of gender, which would allow the recognition of the grievance by the couple and favor more respectful and harmonious relationships within the family.