Obstetric violence and human development: knowledge, power and agency in Colombian women’s birth stories

Obstetric violence was first described in Latin America, consisting of violence perpetrated mainly by health workers against women during pregnancy, birth or postpartum. It affects women worldwide and represents a challenge for human development, as it negatively affects women’s health and rights. This study reflects on the experiences of obstetric violence of a group of Colombian women, bringing visibility to their experiences and analyzing the language they use as a way to understand the issues underpinning these narratives. We adopted qualitative research with in-depth interviews and analyzed the narratives using discourse analysis. This research highlighted: 1) the women’s point of view; despite not being aware of the term “obstetric violence,” their experiences fit into this category that is often naturalized; 2) a hierarchy of knowledge with the biomedical model as authoritative, in which health professionals do not give adequate weight to women’s experiences or knowledge; 3) the relations between obstetric violence and human development, considering women’s (dis)empowerment and the limitations that these abuses imply for women’s freedom and agency

O SERVILISMO TEM QUE MORRER: RESPOSTA A VLADIMIR SAFATLE

Em fins de 2016, os professores Rafael Haddock-Lobo e Vladimir Safatle mantiveram um debate interessante, apesar de curto, sobre a situação da Filosofia no Brasil. Publicados um tanto discretamente no site da Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação em Filosofia (ANPOF), os seus artigos não receberam ainda a devida atenção. O que vamos fazer aqui é defender a posição de Haddock-Lobo contra as investidas de Safatle. A nossa argumentação mostrará que (a) a crítica safatliana não se sustenta (o que não impede que a posição de Haddock-Lobo possa ser criticada por outra via); (b) faz todo sentido colocar a pergunta pela filosofia brasileira nos termos propostos por Haddock-Lobo; (c) o verdadeiro problema da filosofia acadêmica brasileira, ao contrário do que sugere Safatle, não é um problema de campo (o que pode ser mostrado com os argumentos do próprio Safatle); (d) embora Safatle esteja certo em criticar o regime de filiações que caracteriza a filosofia acadêmica brasileira, ele perde de vista o tipo de filiação que realmente importa criticar; (e) finalmente, existe uma afinidade muito maior entre Safatle e Haddock-Lobo do que é possível discernir à primeira vista. Por motivos de espaço, preferimos pressupor uma familiaridadeprévia com os artigos de Haddock-Lobo e Safatle (que podem ser facilmente acessado no site da ANPOF) e concentrar os nossos esforços na análise do debate que eles travaram

El lenguage y la facultad cultural The faculties of language and culture

Este estudio investiga el funcionamiento del lenguaje y de la facultad cultural en la mente y traza la relación entre ellos. Primero revisa la manera predominante de comprender la mente en el siglo veinte, luego explica la mente según la teoría de la modularidad. En el análisis esta tesis examina la facultad del lenguaje y su relación con los universales lingüísticos para proponer una facultad cultural, basada en universales culturales. Estas facultades mentales del lenguaje y de la cultura producen las manifestaciones sociales de la lengua y la cultura, fenómenos que conocemos como únicos de la especie humana. This study examines the operation of the mental faculties of language and culture and outlines the relationship between them. First it reviews the predominant way the mind was seen in the twentieth century, then it explains the mind according to the theory of modularity. In the analysis, this thesis looks at the language faculty and its relationship to linguistic universals in order to propose a cultural faculty, based on cultural universals. These mental faculties of language and culture produce the social manifestations of language and culture, phenomena which are known as unique to the human species

NEUTRALIZANDO O ARGUMENTO DA QUALIDADE: RESULTADOS PRELIMINARES DE UM ESTUDO DE FILOSOFIA EXPERIMENTAL

Esse artigo explora a hipótese da existência de preconceito de nacionalidade entre os membros da comunidade filosófica brasileira. Por utilizar um experimento para investigar o campo da filosofia, o estudo apresentado aqui pode ser classificado como um estudo de filosofia experimental. Entretanto, ele usa uma metodologia da psicologia cognitiva e tem como backgrounds teóricos as filosofias pós-coloniais e pós-modernas. Pós-graduandos e professores de sete departamentos de filosofia brasileiros avaliaram textos atribuídos a autores europeus e latino-americanos. A análise dos resultados revelou uma preferência pelo autor francês em detrimento do autor brasileiro; entretanto, os resultados foram inconclusivos quando outras nacionalidades latino-americanas foram contrastadas com nacionalidades europeias. Esse estudo indica que a comunidade brasileira de filosofia tende a criticar excessivamente os brasileiros que produzem filosofias próprias ao invés de se limitarem a comentar textos produzidos por autores europeus ou norte-americanos

Legitimation of violence against women in Colombia: A feminist critical discourse analytic study

This study analyses the legitimation of violence against women in Colombia, using critical discourse analysis to explore attitudes related to violence, gender, and power. Internet forums from the website of the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo provide everyday examples of talk about two incidents of violence against women (VAW), a sexual assault and a wife-beating, both of which triggered a large scale reaction from the Colombian public. Colombia is a unique context to study the normalisation of VAW. This nation has been characterised by high levels of violence over the last sixty years, suffering through evolving stages of armed conflict. Militarisation has been shown to increase the occurrence of VAW (Kelly, 2000), and the normalisation of VAW may intensify as well in militarily violent contexts (Hume, 2004; McWilliams, 1998). Critical discourse analysis offers theory and methodology to examine an aspect of life in terms of social justice and power (Fairclough, 2003; Resende, 2009), denaturalising the discursive practices which help to produce and reproduce power relations between social groups (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997; van Dijk, 1993). This study examines legitimation, a social action realised in discourse, which has the goal of setting and reinforcing a certain social order. The project also explores how legitimation in these forums is tied to Colombian culture and the topic of VAW. Drawing on the methods of van Dijk (1988, 1998, 2001) ,Wood and Kroger (2000), and grounded theory (Corbin & Strauss, 2008), multiple readings of the forums elicited salient themes as well as discursive strategies used to carry out legitimation of VAW. These were analysed in terms of underlying social beliefs prevailing in Colombian society. Dominant themes emerging from analysis of the sexual assault forums include: ‘“real” violence is more important’; ‘this incident was not a big deal’; ‘it’s her fault anyway’; and ‘she should have appreciated it’. These manifest the dominant strategies and structures of contrasts, minimisation, victim blaming, and romanticisation/sexualisation, respectively. Analysis of the wife-beating forums reveals the following themes: ‘this is not related to me’; ‘wife-beating is a private issue’; ‘domestic violence is normal and even important’; ‘it is the victim’s responsibility to change’; and ‘the victim deserves this violence’. Dominant strategies included respectively: distancing explanations and solutions, discourses of privacy, normalising violence, focusing on the victim, and victim blaming. The forum analyses illustrate how legitimation relates to Colombian culture and the topic of VAW. Numerous elements of culture and topic are used to criticise women’s agency and suggest that women ought to be passive and silent. In one culture-related example, the Colombian reiteration of violent events works to silence women’s stories about their experiences of VAW. Another strong element of culture is found in Colombian sayings and proverbs presenting a common knowledge discourse normalising VAW as romantic, sexual and necessary. Discourses used more universally to justify VAW include the idea that women belong in the private sphere and the psychopathologisation of women as attention-seeking and slutty. These elements work together to suggest that women are strong, sexual, and dangerous, needing violence from an authority to keep them uncomplaining and submissive. This work can inform future studies about discourse concerning VAW in Hispanic contexts, sketching in a little-studied disciplinary intersection. As this research participates in the aims of feminist critical discourse analysis, it is hoped that the present study will also be used for critical campaigns aimed at media specialists and educators so that they may create greater awareness and promote change, pointing out and discouraging these discourses legitimating violence against women in Colombia

“He beat her so hard she fell head over heels”: Normalising wife abuse in Colombia

This chapter.focuses on the discursive strategy of normalisation as one way wife abuse is legitimated in Colombia, exploring specific cultural aspects of this strategy and relating them to a more universal patriarchal ideology about violence against women. This study lies at the intersection of research concerning violence against women, discourse analysis, and Colombian culture. Critical discourse analysjs (van Dijk 1993, 2001) and grounded theory (Corbin and Strauss 2008) are brought together to form a methodology for examining the legitimation (Pardo Abril2007; van Leeuwen 2007) of violence against women in newspaper internet forums. The data set consists of internet forum discussions in the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo about a case of wife abuse. Drawing on sayings, metaphors, euphemisms, and jokes, this chapter shows how wife abuse is normalised in these El Tiempo forums. The postings employ discourses which suggest that violence is an acceptable and even important part of intimate partner relationships. The data analysed in this chapter elucidates part of an ideology in which masculinity is linked to authority, abuse is related to love, and suffering is part of femininity, in this way illustrating the connection between a centuries-old patriarchal ideology (Fernandez Poncela 2002) and the normalisation of wife_ abuse in contemporary Colombian society