Start your workday with inspiring sessions while enjoying breakfast!
We welcome Patrycja Sosnowska-Buxton, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Stavanger. She is researching stories of women living in Norway and Poland who are rebuilding their lives after experiencing domestic violence.
Description of the talk
In feminism, the female body is both the source of oppression and a site of power. In the context of domestic violence, the female body's re/productive capabilities are subjugated and exploited by males, family, society and institutions; it is private and public property.
After interviewing women from Poland who experienced domestic violence, findings show that the female body became an important site of recovery by being physically tended to like going to beauticians, doing sports, and (re)discovering sexual pleasure; the women were physically able to do 'things' they wanted to for the first time in many years, like listening to music and watching TV; and were able to breathe freely, meaning they no longer felt suffocated.
Interestingly, not one woman in our study described herself as a feminist (some pre-emptively rejected the label without being asked). Yet, their narratives showed remarkable awareness of gendered social hierarchies. This shows that the recovery from domestic violence is uncomfortably entangled in patriarchal and neoliberal ideas about the female body, as well as an act of rebellion against these very ideas.
Breakfast will be served.
Language: English.
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