Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article explores representations of gender and violence in Australia’s National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Children. The Plan’s neglect of violence in the context of LGB relationships is discussed as indicative of the Plan’s implicit heteronormativity and its uncritical reliance on dominant discourses of gender and violence. In its failure to engage with the diverse complexities of gender and violence, I argue that the Plan perpetuates the exclusion of certain bodies, identities and experiences, such that rights to protection and safety are reserved for some and not others.

Keywords

Australia domestic violence LGB safety sex/gender social policy

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

ABS (2008) Cat. No. 4326.0 – National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing: Summary of Results, 2007, Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Commonwealth of Australia.

ABS (2011) Cat. No. 2901.0 – Census Dictionary, 2011, Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.

ABS (2012) Cat. No. 2071.0 – Reflecting a Nation: Stories from the 2011 Census, 2012–2013, Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.

ABS (2013) Cat. No. 4906.0 – Personal Safety, Australia, 2012, Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Commonwealth of Australia.

AIDS Council of NSW (2009) Development of a National Women’s Health Policy. Submission to the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging. Available at: http://www.acon.org.au/sites/default/files/NWHP-ACON-Submission.pdf (accessed 5 January 2015).

Altman D (2016) Plebiscite looks set to fail, but the push for same-sex marriage will not. The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/plebiscite-looks-set-to-fail-but-the-push-for-same-sex-marriage-will-not-65243 (accessed 12 October 2016).

Ard

Makadon

(2011) Addressing intimate partner violence in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender patients. Journal of General Internal Medicine 26(8): 930–933.

Australian Marriage Equality (2016) Marriage Equality and Public Opinion. Available at: http://www.australianmarriageequality.org/who-supports-equality/a-majority-of-australians-support-marriage-equality/ (accessed 12 October 2016).

Bacchi

(2000) Policy as discourse: What does it mean? Where does it get us? Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 21(1): 45–57.

10.

Ball

(2011) Gay men, intimate partner violence, and help-seeking: The incomprehensability of being a victim. In: Scherer

Ball

(eds) Queering Paradigms II: Interrogating Agendas, Oxford: Peter Lang AG, pp. 313–330.

11.

Barnes

(2010) ‘Suffering in a silent vacuum’: Woman-to-woman partner abuse as a challenge to the lesbian feminist vision. Feminism and Psychology 21(2): 233–239.

12.

Brown

(2008) Gender-role implications on same-sex intimate partner abuse. Journal of Family Violence 23(6): 457–462.

13.

Brown

Groscup

(2009) Perceptions of same-sex domestic violence among crisis center staff. Journal of Family Violence 24(2): 87–93.

14.

Cage F, Herman T and Good N (2014) The Guardian: Online feature: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Around the World. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2014/may/-sp-gay-rights-world-lesbian-bisexual-transgender (accessed 20 August 2014).

15.

Chan

(2005) Domestic Violence in Gay and Lesbian Relationships. ADFVC Topic Paper, Sydney, NSW: Australian Domestic & Family Violence Clearinghouse.

16.

COAG (2011) National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, Canberra, ACT: Council of Australian Governments, Commonwealth of Australia.

17.

Coleman

(2007) The gendered violence of development: Imaginative geographies of exclusion in the imposition of neo-liberal capitalism. The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 9(2): 204–219.

18.

Dempsey

(2013) Same-Sex Parented Families in Australia. Child Family Community Australia Paper No. 18, Melbourne, Victoria: Australian Institute of Family Studies.

19.

Donovan

Hester

(2008) ‘Because she was my first girlfriend, I didn’t know any different’: Making the case for mainstreaming same-sex sex/relationship education. Sex Education 8(3): 277–287.

20.

Donovan

Hester

(2010) ‘I hate the word “victim”: An exploration of recognition of domestic violence in same sex relationships. Social Policy and Society 9(2): 279–289.

21.

Donovan

Hester

(2014) Domestic Violence and Sexuality: What’s Love got to do with it?, Bristol: Policy Press.

22.

Donovan C, Barnes R and Nixon C (2014) Interim Report of the Coral Project: Exploring abusive behaviours in lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender relationships. Available at: http://thecoralproject.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/86606773/Coral%20Project%20Interim%20Report%20Sept%202014_FINAL%20VERSION.pdf (accessed 25 January 2015).

23.

Donovan

Hester

, et al. (2006) Comparing Domestic Abuse in Same Sex and Heterosexual Relationships, Initial report from ESRC study: University of Sunderland and University of Bristol.

24.

Farrell

Cerise

(2007) Fair’s Fair: A Snapshot of Violence and Abuse in Sydney LGBT Relationships 2006, Sydney: AIDS Council of NSW and the Same Sex Domestic Violence Interagency Working Group.

25.

FitzRoy

(2001) Violent women: Questions for feminist theory, practice and policy. Critical Social Policy 21(1): 7–34.

26.

Frankland

Brown

(2014) Coercive control in same-sex intimate partner violence. Journal of Family Violence 29(1): 15–22.

27.

Greig

(2001) Toward a politics of masculinity. Commission on the Status of Women 2001 Panel. Racism, class and masculinity: The global dimensions of gender-based violence, New York: INSTRAW/UNICEF.

28.

Hayes

Ball

(2010) Queering cyberspace: Fan fiction communities as spaces for expressing and exploring sexuality. In: Scherer

(ed.) Queering Paradigms, Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. 219–240.

29.

Hearn

(2010) Reflecting on men and social policy: Contemporary critical debates and implications for social policy. Critical Social Policy 30(2): 165–188.

30.

Hearn

McKie

(2010) Gendered and social hierarchies in problem representation and policy processes: ‘Domestic violence’ in Finland and Scotland. Violence Against Women 16(2): 136–158.

31.

Hester

Donovan

Fahmy

(2010) Feminist epistemology and the politics of method: Surveying same sex domestic violence. International Journal of Social Research Methodology 13(3): 251–263.

32.

Hollander

(2001) Vulnerability and dangerousness: The construction of gender through conversation about violence. Gender and Society 15(1): 83–109.

33.

Irlam

(2013) Discussion Paper. LGBTI Data: Developing an evidence-informed environment for LGBTI health policy, Sydney: National LGBTI Health Alliance.

34.

Irwin

(2008) (Dis)counted stories: Domestic violence and lesbians. Qualitative Social Work 7(2): 199–215.

35.

Jamrozik

(2009) Social Policy in the Post-Welfare State: Australian Society in a Changing World, Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.

36.

Jeffries

Ball

(2008) Male same-sex intimate partner violence: A descriptive review and call for further research. eLaw Journal: Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law 15(1): 134–179.

37.

Jones

(2004) ‘A fight about nothing’: Constructions of domestic violence, PhD Thesis: University of Adelaide, Australia.

38.

Leonard

Mitchell

, et al. (2008) Coming Forward: The Underreporting of Heterosexist Violence and Same Sex Partner Abuse in Victoria. Monograph Series No. 69, Melbourne: The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University.

39.

Leonard

Pitts

Mitchell

, et al. (2012) Private Lives 2: The Second National Survey of the Health and Wellbeing of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Australians. Monograph Series No. 86, Melbourne: The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society, La Trobe University.

40.

Malinen

K-A

(2013) Challenging the male perpetrator/female victim paradigm: Thinking gender transgressive rape. In: O’Mara

Morrish

(eds) Queering Paradigms III: Queer Impact and Practices, Oxford: Peter Lang AG, pp. 321–342.

41.

Mason

(2001) Body maps: Envisaging homophobia, violence and safety. Social and Legal Studies 10(1): 23–44.

42.

Mason

(2002) The Spectacle of Violence: Homophobia, Gender and Knowledge, London: Routledge.

43.

Mason

(2006) Symposium. The spectacle of violence: Homophobia, gender and knowledge. The book at a glance. Hypatia 21(2): 174–177.

44.

Memmott

Stacy

, et al. (2001) Violence in Indigenous Communities, Canberra: National Crime Prevention, Attorney General’s Department.

45.

Messinger

(2011) Invisible victims: Same-sex IPV in the National Violence Against Women survey. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 26(11): 2228–2243.

46.

Milner

(2004) From ‘disappearing’ to ‘demonized’: The effects on men and women of professional interventions based on challenging men who are violent. Critical Social Policy 24(1): 79–101.

47.

Murray

Powell

(2009) ‘What’s the problem?’: Australian public policy constructions of domestic and family violence. Violence Against Women 15(5): 532–552.

48.

National LGBTI Health Alliance (2008) Submission to National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and Children. Available at: http://lgbtihealth.org.au/sites/default/files/National-LGBT-Health-Alliance-Submission-National-Plan-Reduce-Violence-Against-Women-Children-July-2008.PDF (accessed 10 January 2015).

49.

National LGBTI Health Alliance (2009) Submission to the National Men’s Health Policy Consultation. Available at: http://lgbtihealth.org.au/sites/default/files/National-LGBT-Health-Alliance-Submission-National-Mens-Health-Policy-June-2009.PDF (accessed 10 January 2015).

50.

National LGBTI Health Alliance (2014) Submission 113: Senate Inquiry on Domestic Violence in Australia. Available at: http://lgbtihealth.org.au/sites/default/files/Alliance%20Submission%20to%20the%20Senate%20Inquiry%20on%20Domestic%20Violence%20in%20Australia%202014.pdf (accessed 10 January 2015).

51.

Office for National Statistics (2012) Statistical Bulletin – Integrated Household Survey April 2011 to March 2012: Experimental Statistics, London: Office for National Statistics.

52.

Peterson

(2005) How (the meaning of) gender matters in political economy. New Political Economy 10(4): 499–521.

53.

Pitts

Smith

, et al. (2006) Private Lives: A Report on the Health and Wellbeing of GLBTI Australians. Monograph Series No. 57, Melbourne, Victoria: La Trobe University, The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society.

54.

Richters J, De Visser R, et al. (2014) Australian Study of Health and Relationships. Sex in Australia 2: Summary of Findings Available at: http://www.ashr.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/sex_in_australia_2_summary_data.pdf (accessed 10 August 2015).

55.

Rohrbaugh

(2006) Domestic violence in same-gender relationships. Family Court Review 44(2): 287–299.

56.

Rudd K (2008) Remarks to Inaugural Meeting of the National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and Children, Canberra, 4 June 2008. Available at: http://pmrudd.archive.dpmc.gov.au/node/5764 (accessed 26 February 2011).

57.

Shepherd

(2007) ‘Victims, perpetrators and actors’ revisited: Exploring the potential for a feminist reconceptualisation of (international) security and (gender) violence. The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 9(2): 239–256.

58.

Shepherd

(2009) Gender, violence and global politics: Contemporary debates in feminist security studies. Political Studies Review 7(2): 208–219.

59.

Shepherd

(2010) Women, armed conflict and language – Gender, violence and discourse. International Review of the Red Cross 92(877): 143–159.

60.

Stark

(2007) Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life, New York: Oxford University Press.

61.

Tayton

Kaspiew

, et al. (2014) Groups and Communities at Risk of Domestic and Family Violence: A Review and Evaluation of Domestic and Family Violence Prevention and Early Intervention Services Focusing on At-Risk Groups and Communities, Canberra: Australian Institute of Family Studies.

62.

Theobald J (2011) A long history: The National Plan in context. Parity Magazine 24(September): 6–8.

63.

United Nations (1993) United Nations Resolution 48/104 (444), Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. Available at: http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/48/a48r104.htm (accessed 4 June 2012).

64.

Virkki

(2007) Gender, care, and the normalization of violence: Similarities between occupational violence and intimate partner violence in Finland. NORA-Nordic Journal of Women’s Studies 15(4): 220–232.

65.

Ward

Dahlhamer

, et al. (2014) Sexual orientation and health among U.S. adults: National health interview survey, 2013. National Health Statistics Reports, Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.

66.

Western

Mason

(2011) What about research? Comment on the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children. Parity Magazine 24(8): 28.

67.

Willett

(2013) Australia: Nine jurisdictions, one long struggle. In: Lennox

Waites

(eds) Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Commonwealth: Struggles for Decriminalisation and Change, London: School of Advanced Study, University of London, pp. 207–229.

(In)Visibility and recognition: Australian policy responses to ‘domestic violence’

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References