Citation

Thompson C. Violence Against Women 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1077801219870606

PMID

31502528

Abstract

Discourses on men's violence against women have long been associated with linguistic avoidance and communicative strategies that obscure the responsibility of male perpetrators. Linguistic avoidance does not only obfuscate the responsibility of male perpetrators; such strategies also hide the norms and attitudes that underpin much of men's violence against women. Such techniques represent a form of misdirection: communicative strategies that draw attention away from the true causes or nature of an issue. To demonstrate misdirection in action, I conduct a feminist critical discourse analysis of Australian parliamentarians' speech acts during the criminalization of upskirting in Victoria in 2007.

Language: en

Keywords

criminalization; derailment; feminist critical discourse analysis; image-based sexual abuse; linguistic avoidance; misdirection; upskirting