Machinery of Male Violence: Embodied Properties and Chronic Crisis amongst Partners in Vietnam
Rydström, Helle LU
(2019)
In ASEAS: Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies
12(2).
p.167-185
- Abstract
- This article takes the notion of crisis as a helpful analytical entry point to unfold the tem- poralities and modalities of the machinery of violence as manifested in men’s abuse of their female partners in Vietnam. Based on ethnographic research I conducted over the years, the article argues that some types of crises might be episodic, and thus a bracketing of daily life, while others, such as intimate partner violence, might settle as a crisis of chronicity; as a condition of prolonged difficulties and pain that surreptitiously becomes a new ‘normal’. The machinery of violence, the article shows, refers to processes of symbolic and material transformations of a targeted woman, shaped in accordance with a perpetra- tor’s essentialist... (More)
- This article takes the notion of crisis as a helpful analytical entry point to unfold the tem- poralities and modalities of the machinery of violence as manifested in men’s abuse of their female partners in Vietnam. Based on ethnographic research I conducted over the years, the article argues that some types of crises might be episodic, and thus a bracketing of daily life, while others, such as intimate partner violence, might settle as a crisis of chronicity; as a condition of prolonged difficulties and pain that surreptitiously becomes a new ‘normal’. The machinery of violence, the article shows, refers to processes of symbolic and material transformations of a targeted woman, shaped in accordance with a perpetra- tor’s essentialist imaginations about her embodied properties (e.g., gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity, and bodyableness). Such violence is invigorated by a patrilineal organization of society and a systemic permissiveness to male-to-female abuse. A battered woman is con- fined to an interregnum; a space in which the laws of protection do not apply and male violence is perpetrated with impunity. Yet, men’s violence against their female partners also is combatted and resisted in Vietnamese society. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/64c87c05-5289-4f22-bfca-d460b31fc2f6
- author
- Rydström, Helle
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2019-12-31
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Body, Gender, Intimate Partner Violence, Masculinity, Vietnam
- in
- ASEAS: Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies
- volume
- 12
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 167 - 185
- publisher
- Society for South-East Asian Studies (SEAS)
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85082317426
- ISSN
- 1999-2521
- DOI
- 10.14764/10.ASEAS-0020
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Goethe University Special Issue on Violence in Southeast Asia
- id
- 64c87c05-5289-4f22-bfca-d460b31fc2f6
- date added to LUP
- 2019-04-10 11:31:30
- date last changed
- 2022-08-03 03:30:10
@article{64c87c05-5289-4f22-bfca-d460b31fc2f6,
abstract = {{This article takes the notion of crisis as a helpful analytical entry point to unfold the tem- poralities and modalities of the machinery of violence as manifested in men’s abuse of their female partners in Vietnam. Based on ethnographic research I conducted over the years, the article argues that some types of crises might be episodic, and thus a bracketing of daily life, while others, such as intimate partner violence, might settle as a crisis of chronicity; as a condition of prolonged difficulties and pain that surreptitiously becomes a new ‘normal’. The machinery of violence, the article shows, refers to processes of symbolic and material transformations of a targeted woman, shaped in accordance with a perpetra- tor’s essentialist imaginations about her embodied properties (e.g., gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity, and bodyableness). Such violence is invigorated by a patrilineal organization of society and a systemic permissiveness to male-to-female abuse. A battered woman is con- fined to an interregnum; a space in which the laws of protection do not apply and male violence is perpetrated with impunity. Yet, men’s violence against their female partners also is combatted and resisted in Vietnamese society.}},
author = {{Rydström, Helle}},
issn = {{1999-2521}},
keywords = {{Body; Gender; Intimate Partner Violence; Masculinity; Vietnam}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{12}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{167--185}},
publisher = {{Society for South-East Asian Studies (SEAS)}},
series = {{ASEAS: Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies}},
title = {{Machinery of Male Violence: Embodied Properties and Chronic Crisis amongst Partners in Vietnam}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.14764/10.ASEAS-0020}},
doi = {{10.14764/10.ASEAS-0020}},
volume = {{12}},
year = {{2019}},
}