‘You've Gotta Learn how to Play the Game’: Homeless Women's Use of Gender Performance as a Tool for Preventing Victimization

Abstract

As a masculinist space, 'the streets' present a variety of dangers to homeless women, a fact that has received too little attention within the social science literature. This study utilizes data drawn from interviews with homeless women and service providers in Edinburgh, San Francisco,Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa, to explore the complex survival strategies that homeless women develop to prevent criminal victimization. Through women's words, we see that gender is understood strategically as performance. Four gender performances are identified and discussed: the 'femininity simulacrum', the 'masculinity simulacrum', 'genderlessness' and 'passing'. We discussed how each of these performances is employed in the pursuit of safety and security in frequently violent and chaotic social spaces.Research on the homeless has consistently demonstrated a link between time spent on the streets and increased exposure to criminal victimization (Lee and . However, what we know significantly less about is the relationship of gender to the risk of criminal victimization faced by the homeless, and less still on how gender-based strategies might be employed to reduce that risk. This oversight is perhaps not surprising: historically, the social scientific literature on urban spaces, particularly in relation to homeless communities has subsumed women within the category of the 'undifferentiated "he" ' (Lofland, 1975: 45; see also Bahr, 1973;Huey and Kemple, 2007).Some recent scholarship has attempted to address this deficiency by exploring the question of how gender structures the lives of homeless women, variously increasing or decreasing their vulnerability to victimization

Homelessness and identity: a critical review of the literature and theory

“…Butler (1990), as well as Parsell (2010), would both agree that a 'homeless identity' is not something derived from within but the performance of a set of behaviours externally imposed. Taking this to its conclusion, Huey and Berndt (2008) argue that Butler's account of performativity allows room for individual agency but agency that is always negotiated in relation to the categories created as ontological realities -whether gender, 'race', class, or sexuality.…”

“…Past literature on homelessness and identity has only touched upon insights from Butler's work on identities. Huey and Berndt's (2008) work is the only paper to use these concepts as a central part of its thesis. Their paper is significant because it moves emphasis away from fixed identity categories to the potential for exploiting these unstable positions as a means of performance and tool for resistance.…”

“…Their paper is significant because it moves emphasis away from fixed identity categories to the potential for exploiting these unstable positions as a means of performance and tool for resistance. Huey and Berndt (2008) recognise gender as a performance which can be turned on its head. The homeless women in the study could equally perform as 'feminine' (girlishness, flirtatiousness, emotionalism and maternalism) as well as 'masculine' (assertiveness, aggressiveness, toughness, fearlessness); these were referred to as sets of socially defined behaviours rather than distinct internal identities.…”

Repenser l’itinérance au féminin dans le cadre d’une recherche participative

“…En tant que société, sommes-nous en train d'accepter et de contri- La plupart des études s'entendent pour affirmer que la spécificité de l'itinérance des femmes réside dans son caractère caché, même lorsqu'elles vivent dans les rues (CSF, 2012 ;Gélineau 2008 ;MSSS, 2014b ;Racine 1991 ;Van Berkum et Oudshoorn, 2015). D'abord, elles vont autant que possible éviter la rue pour se protéger de certaines victimisations (Huey et Berndt, 2008 ;Laberge et al, 2000 ;MacDonald, 2014). Elles vont taire leur situation, par peur de perdre ou de ne pas récupérer la garde de leurs enfants, mais aussi par peur du jugement des autres (Corwal, 2002 ;Sznajder-Murray et Slesnick, 2011 ;Zlotnick, Tam et Bradley, 2010).…”

“…Elles vont taire leur situation, par peur de perdre ou de ne pas récupérer la garde de leurs enfants, mais aussi par peur du jugement des autres (Corwal, 2002 ;Sznajder-Murray et Slesnick, 2011 ;Zlotnick, Tam et Bradley, 2010). Dans la rue, elles vont adopter des stratégies de survie particulières pour se prémunir des violences physiques et sexuelles : se procurer un chien (Jamoulle, 2009) ; cesser de se laver 3 ; adopter une attitude agressive et masculine (Huey et Berndt, 2008) ; établir des relations intimes homosexuelles (Bellot, 2001) ; avoir recours à un proxénète (O'Grady et Gaetz, 2004) ; ou s'unir à un homme pour en tirer une forme de protection (Jamoulle, 2009 ;Lanzarini, 2000 ;Osthus et Sewpaul, 2014 ;Watson, 2011). Les relations intimes permettent ainsi aux femmes d'obtenir une sécurité émotionnelle, physique et matérielle (Kirst, Erickson et Strike, 2009 ;Raffaelli et al, 2000 ;Watson, 2013) et, dans certains cas, d'améliorer leurs conditions de vie (Laporte, Le Ménier, Oppenchaim, Pourette et Carpentier, 2007).…”