Abstract
Feelings are at the heart of interpersonal violence. Anger, resentment, rage, panic, tension and fear are all emotional states that victims or perpetrators of violence may experience. This chapter highlights the role of shame in intimate partner violence, which is of course not a new topic. Previous studies have, for instance, demonstrated how victims of intimate partner violence are often ashamed of their victimization (e.g. Fiene, 1995; Hydén, 2005; Enander, 2010). In a Swedish setting, Hydén (2005) and Enander (2010) have shown that abused women label themselves as ‘idiots’ and ‘stupid’ due to not seeing what was coming and for staying in the abusive relationship. Judgemental comments from others may also make the women feel stupid. These experiences of ‘gendered shame’, Enander argues, are related to victims seeing themselves in the eyes of significant others as well as to cultural expectations of ‘self-sufficient’ women, who have no real reason to stay in abusive relationships.
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Gottzén, L. (2016). Displaying Shame: Men’s Violence towards Women in a Culture of Gender Equality. In: Hydén, M., Gadd, D., Wade, A. (eds) Response Based Approaches to the Study of Interpersonal Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137409546_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137409546_9
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