Pambubugbog at Bugbugan sa Gitna ng Kahirapan: A Discursive and Structural Analysis of Domestic Violence

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2015

Abstract

Theorizing that gender roles need to be enacted in social interaction for gendered power relations to produce domestic violence, this study utilized Henriksen's integration of positioning theory and role theory to understand violence in the lives of Filipino heterosexual married couples living in poverty. Applying positioning theory as a discursive lens, we looked at how gender roles are being enacted or discursively produced in the case of one-way male-to-female violence, or pambubugbog, wherein the husband inflicts violence upon the wife. We then sought to determine if gender roles are still at play in the case of two-way violence, or bugbugan, wherein both husband and wife engage in violence. In this case, can gender roles shift? Can gender roles be fluid? Are gender roles still being enacted?

With positioning theory as a discursive lens, women and men now have the power to position in episodes in their everyday lives in order to counter the enactment of traditional gender roles that produce domestic violence. A discursive approach offers the possibility of altering gendered power relations through positioning in ways that can end domestic violence.

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