The role of the Spanish-speaking media is crucial for how Latinx communities learn about seeking help when experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). This study investigated the IPV help-seeking messages disseminated by the Spanish-speaking media in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. We engaged in an exploratory content analysis of videos from Univision’s main website, the most-watched Spanish-speaking media network in the U.S. We searched for videos related to IPV help-seeking posted from March 19–April 21, 2020—including the weeks after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and the U.S. mandated a shelter-in-place. After assessing inclusion criteria, 29 videos were analyzed. Data were analyzed using basic content analysis to determine frequencies and inductive interpretive content analysis to code for help-seeking messages. We identified eight manifest messages related to seeking help when experiencing IPV in times of a crisis: (1) contact a professional resource; (2) contact law enforcement; (3) contact family, friends, and members of your community; (4) create a safety plan; (5) don’t be afraid, be strong; (6) leave the situation; (7) protect yourself at home; and (8) services are available despite the pandemic. We found that the manifest messages alluded to three latent messages: (1) it is your responsibility to change your circumstances; (2) you are in danger and in need of protection; and (3) you are not alone. IPV and media professionals should ensure a structural understanding of IPV in their help-seeking messages and avoid perpetrating stigmatizing and reductionist messages.
Drawing on ethnographic and historical research, this article illuminates the limitations of the Uruguayan domestic violence services system. In spite of how advocates in Uruguay successfully used a human rights platform to secure legislation and services, this system now faces significant critique. Using Iris Marion Young's work on the "logic of masculinist protection" and historical parallels in Uruguay's welfare system, I discuss how a paternalistic approach may be to blame. I highlight how this paternalism contributes to the paternalism that problematically underlies gendered violence-reinforcing rather than addressing oppressive ideologies and structures that impede improving conditions for women.
As the field of domestic violence social services evolves in the United States, anthropology has much to contribute in directing these services towards equitable models of care. While the current trend towards “trauma-informed care” may at times be in tension with feminist concerns around the professionalization of this work, this field is at a crucial moment of transition. Using the author's perspective as a former practitioner alongside her ethnographic training, this research provides insight into how front-line workers can successfully negotiate between these professionalized realities and their necessary ground-level work. Moreover, the author's dual perspective highlights the potential for shared goals between “practitioners” of social services and “practitioners” of ethnography.
Building on the concepts of emotional empathy (feeling how another person feels) and cognitive empathy (understanding how another sees the world), Givens describes the six-step path of radical empathy: (1) a willingness to be vulnerable; (2) becoming grounded in who you are; (3) opening yourself to the experiences of others; (4) practicing empathy; (5) taking action; and (6) creating change and building trust.Chapter 3, "My family's story: The isolation of internalized oppression," is "all about a willingness to be vulnerable" (p. 39). Her family was isolated from other Black families, including her own extended family. The daughter of an Air Force airman and a seamstress who suffered from borderline personality disorder, Givens grew up in the predominately White city of Spokane, Washington. Her family was Roman Catholic, one of the few Black families in the local parish. As someone who viewed herself as an overachiever, Givens often experienced imposter syndrome, a lack of confidence, and perfectionism-all symptoms of internalized oppression. Not only was she the first in her family to go to graduate school and to earn a PhD, but she was also often the first woman, first African American, or first African American woman to hold a position at the schools at which she worked.Throughout her book, Givens embodies and inspires radical empathy. For example, in Chapter 4, "Racism and health disparities," Givens interweaves the story of her father's death from cardiovascular disease at the age of 73 years with statistics about the effect of discrimination, bias, and internalized oppression upon Black people, including rates of cardiovascular disease, pregnancy-related death, and premature birth. To bring about change, Givens started the group "Take Back the Trail" in Austin, Texas in order to encourage women to exercise and discuss the hurdles they faced in exercising and eating healthy.In Chapter 5, "Finding empathy in the academy," the author deftly illustrates the need to examine "divides that impact our ability to connect with each other" (p. 98). She recounts her path from Spokane public schools to Gonzaga Preparatory School to Stanford University to studying in France and then to graduate school at UCLA, where she faced challenges, but also experienced empathy and support from a few key mentors. Throughout her educational journey, she worried about how others and society in general defined and judged her. She became a professor at the University of Washington and then at the University Texas at Austin but left because the situation for Black women was not improving there. Givens, now herself a mentor, founded Brighter Higher Ed in order to improve access and opportunities for students, faculty, and administrators.Most of the chapters in this well written book end with a list of questions that lead from reflection to action, which in turn creates change. As Givens notes, "Radical empathy requires that we move beyond focusing on personal growth to focusing on what is good for our community and for our country" (p. 3...
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