The aim of this study was to elicit the possibility of resistance in 'violence against wives' by contexstualizing the experience victimization in 'violence against wives' and conceptualizing wives as the subject of the experience of victimization. Exi...
The aim of this study was to elicit the possibility of resistance in 'violence against wives' by contexstualizing the experience victimization in 'violence against wives' and conceptualizing wives as the subject of the experience of victimization. Existing discussions on 'violence against wives' have not recognized wives as the subject of violent experiences. The experience of victimization has been defined as being 'violated' rather than as experiencing violence. And the actions of wives in violence relationships have not been focused on. The idea that the wives cannot subjectively experience violence not only fails to reveal the resistance of the wives against violence, but also results in a critical drawback in terms of a lack of discussions on the resistance against 'violence against wives'.
The existing discussions on these violent experiences as a victims have focused on method, location, frequency, duration, degree, and description of the abuse itself. However, explaining victimization through an abuse eliminates the context in which violence was experienced by the victim and easily overlooks the fact that abuses and victims lie in considerably different contexts. An abuse can explain only a part of the experience of victimization. The experience of wives who are in a hierarchy of power is in different context from that of husbands Also, fear, helplessness, and passiveness have been likewise considered as the only tool for explaining the experience of victimization and the status of victims in abuse-centered discussions about 'violence against wives'. However, this only explains a part of a certain experience as a victim and the experience of victimization is too expansive even to be listed. Wives do not only experience fear from visible or invisible abuses from husbands and not all wives become helpless when they are disclosed to abuses. The habit of estimating and measuring the degree and frequency of experience of victimization, as a certain that of abuse often makes wives believe that they must become 'fearful' and 'helpless' to prove their experiences. In the history of construction the experience of victimization in 'violence against wives' based on the abuse itself not only makes the victims invisible, but also repeatedly distorts the occurrence. In fact, wives suffer depression not only as a result of their husbands' physical abuse, but also due to their negligence and indifference towards housekeeping and childcare at home. Wives only talked about their depression when they were asked about 'marital conflict' rather than violence. Vocalizing victimization from direct experiences of 'domestic disputes' rather than explaining the experiences in 'violence against wives', is a process of recovering the context of victimization and of revealing invisible abuses.
In order to appear the experience of victimization in everyday life, I excluded participants from shelter and consulting clients from the survey and instead chose subjects from a group of married women, 35 years or younger. The exclusion of participants from shelter and consulting clients is not because their experiences are clearly different from the experiences of other women, but was done to show that the two groups do not show signs of considerable difference. In fact, the experiences of victimization comprise a wide range like that participants of this study experience an abuse as a depression, enervation, fear and not feeling(unconsciousness) and so on, Shelter participants and consulting clients do not have special experiences, but only certain (extraordinarily fearful and depressing) experiences have been exaggerated in the discussions that look upon the victims is others specific experiences.
The testimonials of the participants of this study show that violence cannot be separated from their daily lives and that violence is not an independent act, but is a constant and ever-changing violent relationship. Hierarchical gender role places husbands and wives in a hierarchy of powers rather than in a mutually respecting relationship and the patriarchic beliefs that tell husbands to regulate and protect their wives justify this hierarchy of power. Ultimately, violent relationships are created through the process of practicing gender roles. In this case, the wives, the subjects of the experience of victimization, take part in formation of violent relationships. Wives either reinforce or weaken the violent relationships or convert them to new relations. Violent relationships are faithfully maked when the wives are sincere to the hierarchical gender roles and to their position as the wives, but are not easily maked when wives are resistant against gender discriminations. And when wives believe that their relations with their husbands must be equal and attempt to make changes, violent relationships are transformed.
Gender sensibility is the ability of a wife to recognize the gender hierarchy of power with her husband and to imagine a new relationship. It is a process of a wife's feeling that the genders are 'given powers' and conceptualized by a system, rather than a process of being enlightened to stand for gender equality, and the ability to realize that the power of the husband leading to violence against the wife is a gender hierarchy of power. The wife can gradually expand her gender sensibility by seeing discrimination in her daily life, such as the husband's exemption from housekeeping and childcare. When the gender hierarchy of power between husbands and wives is reflected in daily life, it brings the wives an opportunity to expand their gender sensibility. The wives not only can recognizes violent relationships, but also converts these violent relationships into new relations by expanding their gender sensibility.
When violence is caused by a hierarchy of power, abuse by husbands will be eliminated when the relationship of a married couple finds a new structure rather than the existing hierarchy of power. Also, the gender sensibility of the wives which will gradually be expanded will form a empowerment that can change violent relationships. The expansion of gender sensibility can be signified as the wives' resistance against violent relationships in that it is achieved by the wives' willingness to do so.
The ultimate reason why experience of victimization must be explained and contextualized independent of abuses is because the wives' resistance to violent relationships can only be revealed and continuous discourses for their resistance can be organized only when wives are recognized as the subjects of violent experiences. This study is significant in that it reconceptualizes wives, the victims, as the subjects of constant resistance and action rather than victims who are always violated. It also has established a pathway to bring change to violent relationships through understanding wives as subjects.