A Queer Theorist’s Critique of Online Domestic Violence Advocacy: Critically Responding to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Web Site

ABSTRACT

Since the foundations of the contemporary anti-violence movement in the 1960s and 1970s, advocates have sought to establish a critical understanding of domestic violence that we can use to direct our efforts for social change. Yet many advocates and advocacy organizations continue to rely on a problematic narrative of sameness that marginalizes and erases diverse victims’ experiences and needs. In this article, I conduct a critical discourse analysis of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Web site to identify outcomes of this narrative for the inclusivity of advocacy efforts. I argue that despite the organization’s numerous claims to represent diverse victims’ experiences, Web site content reveals that its purportedly general account of domestic violence normalizes the experiences of a small group of victims—namely, heterosexual, cisgender women. Further, the Web site’s content greatly limits the potential for thinking about and discussing violence across difference. I conclude with recommendations for changes in advocacy practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Advocacy
• critical discourse analysis
• domestic violence
• gender essentialism
• heteronormativity
• LGBTQ
• national coalition against domestic violence
• queer theory