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The Social Context of Woman-to-Woman Intimate Partner Abuse (WWIPA)

The Social Context of Woman-to-Woman Intimate Partner Abuse (WWIPA). By: Courtney McDonald. Why Study WWIPA?. Information on this topic is lacking “battered woman”? Academic research primarily new Kerry Lobel (1986) Claire Renzetti (1992). The Shocking Facts.

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The Social Context of Woman-to-Woman Intimate Partner Abuse (WWIPA)

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  1. The Social Context of Woman-to-Woman Intimate Partner Abuse (WWIPA) By: Courtney McDonald

  2. Why Study WWIPA? • Information on this topic is lacking • “battered woman”? • Academic research primarily new • Kerry Lobel (1986) • Claire Renzetti (1992)

  3. The Shocking Facts Queer and heterosexual women as likely to experience Partner Abuse Within one study: -73% of U.S. gay men and lesbians experienced abuse The National Coalition of Anti-Violence -documented 3,419 incidents of domestic violence within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community.

  4. Why Does This Happen? Cultural heterosexism and pervasive homophobia Isolation from family members? Dependent on intimate partners Trouble establishing social support systems Abuse of drugs and alcohol?

  5. The Current Study **Qualitative study seeks to explain how heterosexism shaped the social context in which women entered into abusive relationships with other women

  6. Main Research Questions (a) What is the impact of childhood abuse on women’s experiences of adult WWIPA? (b) How does childhood abuse and coming out as queer contribute to a sense of social isolation? (c) Increasing survivors’ dependency on abusers? (d) How does substance abuse contribute to WWIPA?

  7. Who Took Part in The Study? 40 women in total average age was 37 years old variety of ethnic backgrounds Sexual identification? 25: lesbians 7: queer 3: preferred no label 2: bisexual 2: lesbian/bisexual 1: heterosexual at time of the interview

  8. Participants Continued… 61 abusive relationships described Average relationship length= 3.5 years Shortest abusive relationship=3 weeks Longest abusive relationship=11 years

  9. Data Collection *Two types of non-probability sampling used (1) Purposive Sampling majority of participants recruited using this method (2) Snowball Sampling This method was used to recruit 2 participants

  10. Procedure 10 in an office 1 in a library 1 came to author’s home In-depth, semi-structured, open-ended interviews 14 conducted in coffee shops 5 in participants’ homes 4 in public park 10 over the phone or via instant messaging Conversational style Audio recorded

  11. Analysis of Data First 5 interviews transcribed verbatim by the author The rest were transcribed by a professional Themes and codes emerged from the data The codes that emerged were used to develop the conceptual themes

  12. What Did They Find? 1. Childhood Abuse 20 participants (50%) emotional, physical and sexual made them “numb” gave them emotional strength to endure WWIPA “Like my dad, like I said, he used to beat me everyday until I was like 18, so I’m trying to think. I don’t think it really bothered me that he hit me, but it hurt my feelings that I didn’t think he loved me. The physical abuse didn’t bother me. I mean, you know, it hurt, but I just wanted to be loved..”

  13. What Did They Find? 1. Childhood Abuse survivors looked to adult partners to help heal become emotionally dependent on other partner sympathy for partners who had experienced abuse

  14. What Did They Find? 2. Coming out to Family and Friends 39 participants had come out or been outed to their families and friends women under 30 years of age= more positive experiences women over 30 years of age= more negative experiences

  15. What Did They Find? 2. Coming out to Family and Friends women under 30 more likely to tell friends of families about experiencing WWIPA older women more reluctant to tell families and friends **many who had negative coming out experiences did not want to contribute to negative stereotypes about queer people.

  16. What Did They Find? 3. Finding a Community participants first partners were often their only source of connection to queer communities partners used their inexperience in lesbian relationships to extend control over them “She was out from the time she was 18. She had a lot of girls…She would always, throughout our relationship, she would always imply, “I’ve been in a long-term relationship, I know how to have one and you haven’t.”

  17. What Did They Find? 4. Moving In Together **out of 61 relationships, 41 involved women living together moving in is a major symbol of commitment more difficult to walk away from abusive relationship

  18. What Did They Find? 5. Substance Abuse *bars are major sites of socializing in queer communities -5 reported abusing alcohol -4 used illicit drugs -2 struggled with both drug and alcohol abuse -2 abusive participants identified as alcoholics -28 abusive partners (46%) abused alcohol -10 abusive partners abused illicit drugs

  19. What Did They Find? 5. Substance Abuse “There’s also the alcohol issue, heavily with gays, because we do have a lot of guilt issues or feelings, family not accepting us. We tend to be a lot into alcohol. Regretfully, a lot of our social places are alcohol places, and that’s what’s been hard..”

  20. What Does This Mean? Families and friends are becoming more accepting of their queer children Childhood abuse is a major factor in WWIPA

  21. Limitations within the Current Study -small and non-random sample -primarily Caucasian and middle-class participants -future studies should include a more diverse sample of participants -participants were self-selected -10 interviews over the phone and 3 via instant messaging -all interview coding and interpretations about the data were done by the author

  22. What do We Need to Do? Domestic violence services must do more to provide help to queer women Minimize stigma placed on homosexual relationships Raise awareness of WWIPA Addiction and rehabilitative centers to be culturally sensitive and non-heterosexist

  23. Discussion The results of the study showed that women under 30 years of age had more positive experiences of coming out to families and friends. Do you think this means that society as a whole is eliminating the stigma placed on non-heterosexual relationships?

  24. Discussion Do you think that the stigma will continue to deteriorate?

  25. Discussion Do you think that a study examining gay relationships would have significantly different results than lesbian relationships?

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