Week 7: Post-Reading Responses

-           By using multiple categories, we can begin to understand the different types of domestic violence and how one would respond to such a situation. Generally, when someone thinks of domestic violence, we assume that the parties involved are a male and female couple, where the male is the abuser while the female is the survivor; however, this is not always the case. Sometimes roles are switched and the male is the survivor while the woman is the abuser. When taking intersectionality into account, we can see patterns of domestic violence in more than just heterosexual couples. For example, domestic violence can exist in a couple where both people involved are female. Because they are both female, it may be hard to identify who is the abuser and who is the survivor. This is because a case like this isn’t what most would think to be a ‘normal’ domestic violence case.  When the two involved are women, there are times when people think that violence can’t really happen because of their gender and that it was simply a small cat fight.  

            Also, other factors such as nationality play into domestic violence. For example, there may be a case of domestic violence where a male, who is a US citizen is married to a poor immigrant who came to America hoping that she will live a better life; however, the relationship turns into an abusive one that the immigrant is afraid to get out of. She fears that she would lose her life, and the social status that she gained in marrying the US citizen. As an immigrant, without her husband she would simply be a poor lower-class immigrant with no stable income. She wouldn’t be able to live without him. In this case, the identities of being a poor woman who recently immigrated affect her decisions concerning her case of domestic violence. Even though she is being abused, she doesn’t want to lose the things she gained. Also, even if she decided to report the abuse, she might not get the services she needs. Because she is an immigrant, the police may not be able to translate her native tongue or broken English into a complete police report which won’t help her case in the long run. If we were to take into account the different identities people assume and cater to those differences, the woman may have received the services she needed.

-           One of the biggest barriers to receiving help for Paola’s clients were the language barrier and the evidence barrier.  As exemplified in the previous paragraph, not being able to speak English or not having multilingual translators at important service places can be a huge problem for some clients. If communication cannot happen between the client and the service providers, no useful help can be given. Also, for some types of domestic violences, it is hard to provide evidence for a police report. For example, in the case of Emotional abuse, there is no physical evidence of bruises or scars to show that a survivor is being abused. This could pose as a problem for clients when they are immigrants trying to apply for visas that require a police report.

-           Understanding how instersectionality plays into domestic violence won’t necessarily end it, however it may provide a way for better services to be offered so that more survivors can be given the help they need.

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