Methodological disruptions

Interviewing Domestically Violent Men Across a 'Gender Divide

Bibliographic Data

ID5718610
AuthorsFloretta A Boonzaier (0000-0001-7540-4534, University of Cape Town, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume9
Issue4
Pages232-248
Publication date2014-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNORMA (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1890-2138 • E-ISSN: 1890-2146
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/18902138.2014.974868
OpenAlexW1557158846
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited36

This article examines the negotiations of power in cross-gender interviews with men on the topic of their violence against women partners. The article locates itself within a body of feminist and pro-feminist work on men's accounts of their own violence toward women, making the argument that when this 'accounting' is to be accomplished in an interview, with a woman, the interview dynamics are worthy of close attention. I argue that closer attention to the dynamics of the interview involves seeing interviews as social and dialogical encounters in which the dialogue is shaped by the active involvement of researcher and participants. The analysis draws on unstructured interviews conducted with 15 men who had perpetrated violence against an intimate woman partner and shows how men assert masculine power in the interviews through pursuing their own agendas in order to present themselves as either non-violent or justifiably provoked to violence. I also reflect on how these performances of masculinity open up a discursive space for my own performance of femininity and the challenges this holds for me as a feminist researcher researching men's violence against women. The article ends by exploring some further implications for critical feminist work on men's violence against women

Dialogical self · Domestic violence · Femininity · Interview · Masculinity · Negotiation · Poison control · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Intimate Partner and Family Violence · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Social Psychology

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