The Significance of Shame in the Lives of Women Who Experience Male Violence (scholarly article)

[YoungDemCA]

Found a really interesting scholarly article through my school's library, on how shame operates on and regulates the bodies, options, choices, and lives of women who experience male violence.

Here's the abstract:

"Recently there has been recognition of the cultural politics of emotion, that is, the ways in which emotions impact upon individual life experiences. Significantly, it has been shown how emotions can produce effects of power on and through the bodies of individuals. Despite this knowledge, the law and legal responses tend to minimize, obscure and deny the ways in which emotions, and in particular shame, impacts upon individuals. This article therefore argues that the lives of women who experience male violence cannot be fully understood without reference to the ways in which shame affects those experiences. It explores how shame operates as a gendered set of self-regulatory practices, which are also practices of male power in individual womens’ lives. In order to do this findings from a small scale qualitative study which used semi-structured interviews with women who have experienced violence are utilized, together with a Foucauldian theoretical framework. The article contends that an awareness and understanding of how shame affects the lives of women experience male violence can improve law and social policy responses to male violence against women."

And an excerpt from the body of the article:

"... despite a general dearth of knowledge within the legal academy on shame and how it affects individuals in society, it is argued that the work of feminist violence scholars has particular pertinence, and could better inform legal and indeed social policy response in this area.

Feminists have specifically argued that shame can have a range of detrimental effects on women who experience male violence.These effects can include: concealing and denying the violence (and evidence of it) to family, friends and domestic violence service providers. Significantly in relation to effective legal responses to violence, it can prevent women utilizing the courts and criminal justice agencies such as the police. As McMillan states: ‘‘…shame…reduces the likelihood of engaging with support agencies, not just criminal justice agencies, and therefore makes disclosure to other ‘helping’ professionals, such as social work, less likely."

These damaging effects of shame are also exacerbated in relation to sexual violence, older women and those from minority ethnic backgrounds. Whereas older women feel to blame for not having ‘fixed’ the relationship and living with the abuse for so long, ethnic minority women fear bringing shame on their family by revealing the violence.

Citation: Baker, H. H. (2013). The Significance of Shame in the Lives of Women Who Experience Male Violence. Liverpool Law Review, 34(2), 145-171.

As always, feel free to discuss or share as much or as little of your thoughts and feelings as you wish.