Gender and Violence

In this chapter we approach the question of gender and violence by drawing attention to the ways in which gendered manifestations of violence become intelligible through hierarchic gender order and how these concretize in lived experiences. We build our intersectional approach to gender and violence by drawing on feminist research on violence and queer migration studies. Both these approaches emphasize analyzing how power relations, gender norms and normative notions of gender and sexuality inform how gendered violence is enabled and sustained in culture and society. In this chapter we explore this by looking at two very different examples of gendered violence; one of intimate partner violence in the private sphere and another of institutional violence that gender minorities face in seeking asylum in Europe. Through these different examples we discuss how gender norms and normative notions of gender are configured in the manifestations of gendered violence and how these forms of violence are often normalized and minimized in culture and society. We close our discussion by discussing the real repercussions the normalization of gendered violence has for the targets and how it may pose a challenge in being heard, receiving help or seeking justice.