Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Confronting ‘Victim’ Discourses: The Identity Work Of Battered Women, Amy Leisenring

Amy Leisenring

In this article I explore how battered women both draw from and reject victim discourses in their processes of self-construction and self-representation. Data gathered from semi-structured interviews with forty women who experienced violence from an intimate partner in a heterosexual relationship demonstrate that available "victim" discourses are both enabling and constraining. Four common representations of a victim emerged as more influential to women identity work: as someone who suffers a harm she cannot control; as someone who deserves sympathy and/or requires some type of action be taken against the victimizer; as someone who is culpable for her experiences; and as …