We Can't Prevent Gender-Based Violence Until We Can Accurately Name It
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In this op-ed, Brigittine French, who specializes in femicide and gender-based violence at Grinnell College, argues that we need to explicitly name gender-based violence in order to prevent it.
In the days following the horrifying murder of Rice University student Andrea Rodriguez Avila, in her dormitory by a man she knew, I’ve been thinking a lot about the complexities of gender-based violence facing women in the United States. Identifying violence against women can be challenging, especially in the U.S., where legal and social systems often overlook certain forms of it, despite readily condemning such violence in other countries. As a result, many women are left uncertain about what qualifies as abuse or assault and how it may show up in their own lives.
I was reminded of this recently while watching Bottoms, a comedic film that nevertheless explores these very serious issues. In one scene, a diverse group of high school girls gather in an afterschool club to discuss their common experiences. The characters are asked if they've ever been raped and they all say no. Then, they are asked if they have “kind of” been sexually assaulted and they all raise their hands. In other words, they struggle to answer because they know they have faced unwanted sexual interactions, but they aren’t clear about what actions count as forms of gender violence.
This ambiguity and lack of recognition creates a dangerous environment where instances of aggression and control that can escalate into lethal violence thrive under the radar, often disguised as cultural norms or brushed off as misunderstandings between couples. As young women return to campus this fall—and with October’s Domestic Violence Awareness Month approaching—it’s crucial to understand these nuances and trajectories of violence that can lead to femicides like seemingly that of Rodriguez Avila.
Femicide is the crime of murdering a woman because of her gender; since gender is a social, rather than biological category, it means that gender roles, identities, and relationships are the key factors that lead a perpetrator, usually a man, to kill a woman. Femicide is a violent crime that the United Nations calls a global epidemic, affecting every country of the world. It is a legally recognized crime, separate from homicide, in justice systems throughout neighboring countries in Latin America and increasingly in other parts of the world thanks to women and human rights activists around the globe.
The killings of Vanessa Guillén, Oluwatoyin Salau, Nina Pop, and many more are part of a global problem.
The United States is an exception; the reality of femicide is not recognized legally or socially in this country. In fact, we hardly use the term at all, in any context. Instead, we recognize and condemn other forms of extreme gender-based violence associated with other parts of the world, like female genital mutilation, or the profound violent removal of women from all aspects of public life, work, and education by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Honor killings, where men in a family murder a young woman because she has tarnished the family’s honor through perceptions of promiscuity, is another example. (While we think about these crimes affecting women in other places, “honor killings” do happen in the U.S. and they are femicides.) When we see such extreme violence against women in communities other than our own, it is easy to think that women are safe because we don’t necessarily face these kinds of overt attacks; it creates a false sense of security. We also tend to soften our language when it comes to gender-based violence in our country. We often simply label femicide “domestic violence” or intimate partner violence, as in the case of the murder of Temple University student, Milan Jones who was allegedly murdered by her boyfriend, Tamir Lackey.
What links non-lethal forms of gender violence and femicides? The answer is control and power over women’s bodies, choices, and ultimately lives. A boyfriend reading all of his girlfriend’s text messages from new male friends at college is not as explicit or wide-reaching as a law that says women must cover themselves completely when walking on a public street, but they are both rooted in similar goals. One is subtle and the other is a blatant attempt to regulate women’s self-autonomy. Both are moments in longer processes of surveillance and restriction by men that can and do have deadly consequences when women resist. When a man in your life always wants to have his way in any disagreement, asks you to change your clothes before going out, gaslights your perceptions, or acts out when you spend time with other people, these are signs of coercive behavior.
Gender-based violence is almost never a single event, it is a process that unfolds over time. As such, it calls on all women, and those who love them, to be vigilant, call out unacceptable behavior, and fight for laws that keep us all safe, on and off campus.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence or intimate partner violence, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, available 24/7, for confidential assistance from a trained advocate. If you’re unable to speak safely via phone, you can chat online at thehotline.org.
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
