El varón maltratado. Representaciones sociales de la masculinidad dañada
[eng] Being woman and victim is an ordinary binomial in Spain when discussing domestic violence. The seriousness of the abuse suffered by women at the hands of their male partners has turned the former into an object of analysis in the field of social problems. Men as victims of abuse by their partn...
| Autor: | |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2013 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de la UB |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/52224 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2445/52224 http://hdl.handle.net/10803/132095 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Masculinitat Representacions socials Control social Violència Gènere Masculinity Social representation Social control Violence Gender |
| Sumario: | [eng] Being woman and victim is an ordinary binomial in Spain when discussing domestic violence. The seriousness of the abuse suffered by women at the hands of their male partners has turned the former into an object of analysis in the field of social problems. Men as victims of abuse by their partners, on the other hand, is quite out of the ordinary, it defies socially accepted norms. The invisibility of female-inflicted abuse on males is not only a consequence of its affecting the most intimate area of a person's life, but also to the social and cultural connotations that weigh upon the victims of this type of abuse. Using a series of in-depth interviews with heterosexual men who claim to have been physically or psychologically abused by their wives/partners I analyse how they cope with the invisibility of the phenomenon they are experiencing, and their inability to discuss their situation openly because of the public’s denial of their condition of victims. I also discuss the strategies these men use to legitimise their situation and the way in which abused men redefine the hegemonic discourse on gender. In fact this thesis lies on the parametres of the sociology of gender and sociology of deviation and social control. The present study is located in Spain, where honour is conceived as inextricably linked to manhood and social prominence. The figure of the “abused man” can offer some insights into the management of male identity. This is because the gender variable has emerged as part of the identity management of these men, as it forces them to rethink the implications of hegemonic masculinity in its immediate context. The sociocultural environment does not support men who confess to have been assaulted by their female partners. The Spanish case is interesting not only for the null production of academic studies on the problem of the “male victim”, but also because Spain lingers in a hardcore hegemonic ideal of masculinity that impedes the social acceptance of victimized males. In this thesis, I analyse the strategies used by abused Spanish men to adapt to their new social context and construct a new masculine identity after being abused by their female partners and having disclosed their abuse publically. The very exceptionality of their situation undermines these men’s ability to make it public. Their inability to disclose the abuse is determined by its social and academic invisibility, since it rarely makes the news, and if it does it is only to mark its exceptionality; the shame experienced by the victims of this type of violence, who feel that they fall short of the myths of power and control traditionally associated to masculinity; and the victims' need to overcome their fear of jests and ridicule when sharing their experience. Being “on the other side” of Intimate Partner Violence, these men need to redefine hegemonic gender discourse to place themselves (or not) in the frame of “gender violence”. Abused males need to (re)negotiate the condition of vulnerability that is inherent to the social and institutional status of “victim” in the world of violence within a relationship. |
|---|