Genderbashing: Sexuality, Gender, and the Regulation of Public Space

Abstract

In this paper I address the relations between gender and sexuality in violence generally known as ‘gaybashing’. I argue that a perceived transgression of normative sex-gender relations motivates most aggressive incidents. In practical terms, this means that men who are judged to be ‘effeminate’ and women deemed to be ‘masculine’ are those most at risk of assault, I also consider the implications of this insight for those individuals who live outside normative sex-gender relations (‘transgenders’). In this paper the ways in which public space is defined through gender arc also examined, such that an attack on gender outlaws or gays and lesbians is often an attempt to police one's self-presentation, Though gender and sexuality are thus intertwined, I investigate the ways in which these variables can be juxtaposed. An analysis of antiviolence activism in the city of Montréal provides the focus for this study. I conclude with a call for research and education on violence, which recognizes the role that gender plays in incidents of aggression, and which therefore accounts for the different experiences of violence faced by men, women, and transgenders.

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