2008 Woodie Awards
Opening Minds about Queer Domestic Violence
Megan Specia
Issue date: 10/27/06 Section: News
- Page 1 of 3 next >
One in four relationships involve some form of physical or emotional intimate partner violence, according to Dr. Kim Fountain who spoke Wednesday in the MUB.
What many people don't realize is that this alarming statistic applies to all relationships, not just those between a man and a woman.
There are many common misconceptions in society today regarding intimate partner violence, the biggest being that it only occurs in heterosexual relationships. Fountain spoke about the need to break through these stereotypes to provide care to all victims of intimate partner violence, or IPV.
Fountain delivered her lecture, entitled "Queer Encounters with a Violence Against Women Movement" as part of the Sidore Lecture Series to an audience of about 70 students and faculty members.
"I thought it was interesting to hear about a different side of intimate partner violence," said sophomore Meghan Comer. "I never thought about the fact that if someone gay was abused they could have trouble getting help. It's not common and people don't often believe it's a problem."
Fountain said that the most important part of providing assistance to victims is breaking down what she called the "hetero-normative view of intimate partner violence." This is the commonly accepted belief that domestic violence is only committed by men against women.
"You cannot rely on very flawed methods of detecting IPV," said Fountain. "The idea that the man beats the woman is not always accurate, or even relevant. You have to instead look for patterns of behavior to identify the perpetrator and the victim. Serious risks are run when you do no do an accurate assessment."
In the queer community, according to Fountain, one of these risks is the possibility of batterers being put in the same shelter as their victim. These situations can arise when same sex couples are placed in the same facility for care, based on their gender alone. Without an accurate assessment of the situation, problems like this arise far too often, Fountain explained.
What many people don't realize is that this alarming statistic applies to all relationships, not just those between a man and a woman.
There are many common misconceptions in society today regarding intimate partner violence, the biggest being that it only occurs in heterosexual relationships. Fountain spoke about the need to break through these stereotypes to provide care to all victims of intimate partner violence, or IPV.
Fountain delivered her lecture, entitled "Queer Encounters with a Violence Against Women Movement" as part of the Sidore Lecture Series to an audience of about 70 students and faculty members.
"I thought it was interesting to hear about a different side of intimate partner violence," said sophomore Meghan Comer. "I never thought about the fact that if someone gay was abused they could have trouble getting help. It's not common and people don't often believe it's a problem."
Fountain said that the most important part of providing assistance to victims is breaking down what she called the "hetero-normative view of intimate partner violence." This is the commonly accepted belief that domestic violence is only committed by men against women.
"You cannot rely on very flawed methods of detecting IPV," said Fountain. "The idea that the man beats the woman is not always accurate, or even relevant. You have to instead look for patterns of behavior to identify the perpetrator and the victim. Serious risks are run when you do no do an accurate assessment."
In the queer community, according to Fountain, one of these risks is the possibility of batterers being put in the same shelter as their victim. These situations can arise when same sex couples are placed in the same facility for care, based on their gender alone. Without an accurate assessment of the situation, problems like this arise far too often, Fountain explained.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Mike Gauthier
posted 10/27/06 @ 8:43 AM EST
A while back, I read that, including rape, men are twice as likely to be physically assaulted as women. And some of us know of the work of our own Dr. (Continued…)
Post a Comment