Victim of Abuse, Violence, or Harm?
Résumé
The language used to describe the embodied experience of “victims of gender-based violence” is contested and evolving. Descriptions of violence are shaped by socio-historic context and by academic, media, and legal discourses. These in turn inform and delimit the production of knowledge. Yet victims themselves may struggle to recognise their experience in these words. We explore how lexical choices in French and in English construct and categorise individuals who experience sexual and domestic violence. We call for a more radical commitment to reflexively naming, collecting, and publishing data, and for the direct involvement of individuals with lived experience in shaping that work.