Academic interest in applications of rhetoric to social issues is undergoing a revival. This paper develops a rhetorical analysis of discourse generated by men who have been recently violent towards women. The texts have been drawn from transcribed interviews with 14 men who had recently begun or were about to attend stopping violence programmes. Each 90-minute interview prompted the men on their views towards women, violence and relationships. A range of rhetorical devices within the texts were identified and their effect was analysed. This paper focuses on five devices: reference ambiguity, axiom markers, metaphor, synecdoche and metonymy. The strategic effects of each device are discussed with close reference to sample passages from the transcripts. The paper explores how these rhetorical devices resource discourses of male dominance and entitlement to power, and how these in turn resource men in their violence towards women. Increased sensitivity to the nuanced effects of the rhetoric is seen to improve understanding of how men justify, camouflage and maintain positions of dominance within relationships with women.
Violence against women by men who are their intimate partners is now recognized internationally as a significant problem and one that impacts on social and community development and on the health of women and children. Women commonly report little of this violence. In this paper, we discuss the various socially constructed dilemmas for women that may silence them from talking of such violence. Billig et al.'s (1988) concept of ideological dilemmas emerged as a useful analytic device from which to analyse the discourses of 20 women who had experienced violence from their male partners. In particular, the influence of ideologies of patriarchy and of equity, and ideologies of individualism and collectivism were found to impact on some women's talk of such violence. This research contributes to the current debate on the psychosocial by describing the ways in which ideological dilemmas interweave across the social and the psychological.
Arctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii) were studied for three summers near Haines Junction, Yukon Territory. Population characteristics and the behaviour of individual animals were monitored throughout the study. Ground squirrels entered hibernation in the order adult females, juvenile females, then males. Males emerged from hibernation before females. Males stored food in the autumn when conditions permitted, whereas females did not. Males emerged from hibernation having lost significantly less weight than females over winter. Males lost weight during the mating period, whereas females did not. These data are interpreted in terms of the mating period which for males lasts for approximately three weeks, whereas for females it lasts for less than a day. RÉSUMÉ. Les Spermophiles arctiques (Spermophilusparryii) furent ttudits lors de trois Btés pres de Haines Junction, au Yukon. Les caracteres de la population ainsique les comportements d'individus furent contrôlde durant toute I'etude. Les Spermophiles ont amorce l'hibernation dans l'ordre suivant: les femelles adultes, les femelles juveniles puis les mâles. Les mâles ont cess6 l'hibernation plus tôt que les femelles. Les mâles, contrairement aux femelles, ont entrepose de la nourriture en automne lorsque les conditions les permettaient. Lors de l'hibernation, les mâles ont perdu beaucoup moins de poids que les femelles. Lors de la pkriode d'accouplement une perte du poids s'est faites sentir sur les mâles uniquement. Ces données sont reliees à la periode d'accouplement qui s'ttend sur environ trois semaines pour les mâles mais moins qu'une seule journde pour les femelles.
In this paper, we document and theorise ‘ownership’ practices in young people’s intimate relationships and discuss the parallels with domestic violence. Ten young New Zealand women engaged in focus group discussions about their heterosexual partner’s ‘ownership’ practices or jealous, possessive and controlling behaviours. Using discourse analysis informed by feminist poststructuralism and critical realism, we identified three proprietary ‘ownership’ practices experienced by these young women: ‘ownership’ entitlement, surveillance and identity ‘ownership’. We discuss the parallels between these practices and those experienced by women subjected to men’s domestic violence, the possibility that such practices may be precursors to the development of domestic violence and the implications for prevention.
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