Prevention of gender violence and working against LGBT prejudices: The intersection between collective action and institutional dynamics

Abstract

This study compares two public campaigns against LGBT prejudices: ‘Dislike Homophobic Bullying’, by CIG, the Portuguese governmental mechanism for citizenship and gender equality; and the performative action ‘Exorcise the Pathologization’, included in the Portuguese branch of the international campaign Stop Trans Pathologization 2012. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA) and visual analysis (VA), we conclude that gender violence is a cross-cultural and structural problem embracing a wide range of forms of violence against women and LGBT people in Portugal. It is grounded in a dominant culture where gender is socially constructed as polarized, complemented by the performativity of discourse, the intersectional and institutional power relations underlying social practices. We demonstrate how public campaigns against homophobia and transphobia can contribute to de-naturalizing the gender divide and gender regime, and thus to changing the cultural ground of gender violence. However, without deconstructing gender, they are at risk of reproducing gender hierarchies.

Survey of Heteronormative Attitudes and Tolerance Toward Gender Non-conformity in Mountain West Undergraduate Students

“…Current literature indicates that gender non-conformity is a risk indicator for childhood physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, independent of sexual orientation (Roberts et al, 2012). Additionally, increased physical and emotional abuse have been reported in non-heterosexuals, with gender atypicality as a possible causal factor (Corliss et al, 2002; Rosa et al, 2018). Adult femininity has been associated with childhood sexual abuse in gay and bisexual men (Sandfort et al, 2007).…”

“…Negative attitudes toward gender non-conformity are pervasive in American culture (Friedman and Downey, 1999; Skidmore et al, 2006; Schwartz et al, 2016), and contribute to much of the violence and discrimination commonly experienced among sexual minorities (Balsam et al, 2005; Skidmore et al, 2006; Rosa et al, 2018) and those who do not conform to traditional gender norms (Fasoli et al, 2017). This may be due in part to the widespread acceptance of heteronormative attitudes in the United States (Herek, 2009; Baams et al, 2015).…”

“…Early attitudes about gender roles and expectations of conformity are shaped to some extent by parents’ modeled behavior (Halpern and Perry-Jenkins, 2016). It has been posited that negative attitudes may stem from the perception of gender non-conforming behavior as a threat to society’s traditional sex role structure (Whitley, 1987; Rosa et al, 2018), suggesting higher personal gender conformity likely correlates with a negative view of non-conformity. If underlying heteronormative ideologies may be associated with harmful reactionary behavior, this association should be carefully studied and reported.…”

Bullying homofóbico: Crenças e práticas de estudantes do Ensino Superior em Portugal

“…Para Hong e Gabarino (2012), os valores heteronormativos podem estimular o preconceito e a discriminação contra pessoas LGBT. O bullying homofóbico inclui dinâmicas de poder (Espelage, Basile, & Hamburger, 2015), constituindo-se também como uma expressão da violência de género, na medida em que o género é um sistema patriarcal e heteronormativo que constrange as identidades dos grupos socialmente mais vulneráveis, nomeadamente das mulheres e das pessoas LGBT (Rosa et al, 2018;Utrilla, García, & Yáñez, 2018).…”