Gender & Sexual Violence in 21st Century by Claire O'Callaghan

"Shadow pandemic"

drclaireocallaghan — 2024-10-01 10:44:23 UTC

This article explores the large-scale problem of violence against women in contemporary culture and calls it a 'shadow pandemic'. What are your thoughts on this turn of phrase to conceptual the problem?

Cyberviolence - a contemporary phenomenon

drclaireocallaghan — 2024-10-01 10:45:50 UTC

In week 1, we discussed the digital - the internet and social media platforms - as a particular phenomenon of 21st-century culture. What issues are raised here about 'cyberviolence'?

Statistics

drclaireocallaghan — 2024-10-01 10:47:37 UTC

This UN page presents a series of facts and figures outlining the large-scale scope of the problem and the prevalence of violence.

Do these figures problematise the idea that contemporary culture is more progressive in some ways? Do these figures show that violence against women is on the rise?

Definitions

drclaireocallaghan — 2024-10-01 10:49:21 UTC

What are the forms of violence against women and girls? What is included here under this rubric?

Awareness

drclaireocallaghan — 2024-10-01 10:51:52 UTC

#MeToo

drclaireocallaghan — 2024-10-01 10:54:36 UTC

What is your awareness of the history of the phrase "me too" (not as a hashtag) and its origins and then its use as a hashtag? What issues are raised by this history?

#MeToo Fictions

drclaireocallaghan — 2024-10-01 11:01:42 UTC

A number of contemporary books speak reflect the #MeToo movement, including Anna Burns' Milkman, Sigrid Nunez's The Friend, & Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls. In fact, across genres, fiction has offered readers a plurality of responses to #MeToo, from the speculative (Sophie Mackintosh’s The Water Cure, Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments) to the contemporary (Queenie, by Candice Carty-Williams, What Red Was by Rosie Price, Shelf Life by Livia Franchini) and the experimental (Peach by Emma Glass). Is it important that this topic is explored across diverse genres? If so, why?

drclaireocallaghan — 2024-10-01 11:02:55 UTC

Useful Resources

● Loughborough University’s Incident Reporting Tool: https://rp.lboro.ac.uk/home

● Loughborough University’s Wellbeing Support: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/student-services/category/mental-health-wellbeing/

● Juniper Lodge (SARC) Sexual Assault Referral Clinic (18+): https://juniperlodge.org.uk/who-we-are/

● Loughborough’s Women’s Aid - The Amber Project: https://lwa.org.uk/get-help-now/services/sexual-violence-services/

● Survivors UK (Male Sexual Assault): https://www.survivorsuk.org/

● Rape Crisis support (Female Sexual Assault): https://www.jasminehouse.org.uk/

● LGBTQ+ Abuse and Violence: https://galop.org.uk/

● LSU Nightline - call +441059227650 open (Wed/Fri evenings during term time)

● Human Trafficking Support Services UK: https://www.humantraffickingfoundation.org/support-services

Theoretical and conceptual approaches

drclaireocallaghan — 2024-10-01 11:09:02 UTC

This week we're reading the introduction to Leigh Gilmour's book. Let's think about these questions. What do you understand by these questions and what information, tools and concepts do we need to understand better to answer them?

How does violence differentially affect gendered bodies and gendered lives?

What are the connections between different forms or modes of violence – structural, symbolic, normative, linguistic, aesthetic and direct – and what role does gender play here?

What are the limits of the term ‘violence’?;

How might real-world examples of violence challenge theoretical and conceptual frameworks?

Additional Theoretical Reading

drclaireocallaghan — 2024-10-01 11:09:42 UTC

Arendt, Hannah. On Violence. London: Allen Lane, 1970.

Brownmiller, Susan. Against our Will: Men, Women and Rape. London: Secker and Warburg, 1975.

Butler, Judith. Frames of War: When is Life Grievable. London; New York: Verso, 2009.

Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth, trans. by Constance Farrington.Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967.

Galtung, Johan. ‘Violence, Peace, and Peace Research’. Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1969): 167-191.

Melzer, Patricia. Death in the Shape of a Young Girl: Women’s Political Violence in the Red Army Faction. New York and London: New York University Press, 2015.

Scheper-Hughes, Nancy and Philippe Bourgois, eds. Violence in War and Peace. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004.

Wilcox, Lauren B. Bodies of Violence: Theorizing Embodied Subjects in International Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Žižek, Slavoj. Violence: Six Sideways Reflections. London: Profile, 2008.

Context

drclaireocallaghan — 2024-10-01 11:11:22 UTC

Violence against women – particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence – “is a major public and clinical health problem and a violation of women’s human rights” (World Health Organization).

One in three women across the planet experiences this type of violence. Its ripples also affect many others, including family and community members of perpetrators and victim-survivors, practitioners in support services, and all the institutions and workplaces in which it occurs, such as the law, education, health, politics and entertainment industries.

As well as having significant, lasting effects on their health and well-being, it also prevents women from playing an equal part in society and restricts their freedom. We are in the midst of unprecedented public and political attention to forms of gendered violence such as intimate partner violence, coercive control, sexual abuse, and digital gendered violations.