Femicide, Gender and Violence

Beschreibung

This book questions gendered readings of violence by analyzing how this paradigm has become normalized in Italy since the feminist term ‘femminicidio’, or ‘femicide’, entered the mainstream media during the 2013 general election. It also sheds light on discourses of contestation on the part of family activists, men’s rights campaigners and divorced fathers’ groups. Two counter-discourses emerge. The first is what the author terms an ‘ideology narrative’, for which discourses built around the conceptual category of ‘gender’ normalize simplistic representations of relationships between men and women. The second is a ‘female violence discourse’, which sheds light on under-represented aggressor-victim relations and modifies dominant representations of femininity and masculinity. The author argues that integrating these two discourses into public debates helps to reappropriate the complexity and biological dimensions of (violent) relationships between men and women, often overshadowed by gender/feminist perspectives. In this way, she concludes, we can address neglected social issues that contribute to violence beyond gender. This thought-provoking book will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, critical discourse studies and gender.
This book questions gendered readings of violence by analyzing how this paradigm has become normalized in Italy since the feminist term ‘femminicidio’, or ‘femicide’, entered the mainstream media during the 2013 general election. It also sheds light on discourses of contestation on the part of family activists, men’s rights campaigners and divorced fathers’ groups. Two counter-discourses emerge. The first is what the author terms an ‘ideology narrative’, for which discourses built around the conceptual category of ‘gender’ normalize simplistic representations of relationships between men and women. The second is a ‘female violence discourse’, which sheds light on under-represented aggressor-victim relations and modifies dominant representations of femininity and masculinity. The author argues that integrating these two discourses into public debates helps to reappropriate the complexity and biological dimensions of (violent) relationships between men and women, often overshadowedby gender/feminist perspectives. In this way, she concludes, we can address neglected social issues that contribute to violence beyond gender. This thought-provoking book will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, critical discourse studies and gender.
Offers a critique of gender that has global ramifications Provides a significant contribution to feminist discourse regarding violence against women (VAW) Sheds light on moral panics related to VAW

Autor*in

Daniela Bandelli

Themen in »Femicide, Gender and Violence«

Critical Discourse Studies Ideology Power Foucault Biopolitics Identity politics Social constructivism counter-discourse domestic violence gender-based violence sexism feminist activism political discourse feminist discourse media studies

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“In no other country of the world has the notion of femicide been at the centre of such intense debate as in Italy. Bandelli’s book expounds the academic, media and feminist standpoints, which boil down to basic differences in understanding gender and violence. She provides a masterful synthesis of a wide spectrum of theories and a vivid depiction of how the public sphere works around contested concepts. This book is a must-read for sociologists, criminologists, media and women’s studies specialists.” (Consuelo Corradi, LUMSA University, Italy)

“This book is an alternative and a suggestive and non-orthodox approach to the feminist gender framework of violence using Critical Discourse Studies. It provides a review of theoretical issues on this topic and a case study, Italy. It is interesting for any reader, even though it could be provocative for many strict feminist activists.” (Chaime Marcuello-Servós, University of Zaragoza, Spain)

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