Violence against Women: Forms and Responses

Abstract

Our civilization abounds in examples of violence perpetrated against women and, in general, against all those who in some way appear to be weak or inferior. We see violent acts on television, in the movies, on the streets, and in the workplace; we hear of actual violence on the news every day: according to “Violence Against Women” posted on the web Womankind Worldwide, “In the UK, two women are killed each week by their husband or intimate partner,” while in Africa, the number is one woman every six hours. We are so used to such manifestations that perhaps we need to take “a step back,” as Slavoj Žižek recommends, in order to “identify a violence that sustains our very efforts to fight violence and to promote tolerance” (1). Žižek urges us not to ignore symbolic and systemic violence, aspects that are perhaps more difficult to recognize than the subjective violence that is captured in news articles of, for example, women stoned for adultery. The authors of this book believe that the theater can help one take this step back; that by examining the role models that women’s theater offers and the different ways in which violence against women is portrayed on the stage, one can better understand how and why audiences are stimulated to react and act.