As Long as I Can Watch : Violence Towards Non-Heterosexual Women in Amsterdam

I. de Vries

Amsterdam is known all around the world for its liberal views on homosexuality. Therefore, violence against homosexuals in Amsterdam is an interesting phenomenon. Research about violence against non-heterosexuals is often only focused on the violence non-heterosexual men experience. However, it is also interesting to research violence against non-heterosexual women. In my thesis I aimed to provide insight in the experiences of non-heterosexual women with violence in Amsterdam. The main question I wanted to answer in this thesis was: (A) why do certain forms of violence occur and (B) how do the women deal with it? Sub questions that I have answered are: (1) what are the experiences of non-heterosexual women with violence; (2) how can we understand violence against non-heterosexual women in a tolerant city and (3) is violence against non-heterosexual women located at the intersection of their sexuality and their gender? To answer these questions I conducted nine semi-structured interviews. The women I interviewed were cisgendered, feminine presenting, able-bodied, Dutch, white and most of them were highly educated. I came into contact with the women by asking my personal contacts, posting messages in several Facebook groups and by posting a message on a forum for lesbian women. To analyze the data, I used the following theoretical concepts: homophobia, heterosexism, heteronormativity and objectification. These concepts are discussed in Chapter 2. In this study I found that (1) the women experienced interior-individual violence; exterior-individual violence; interior-collective violence and exterior-collective violence. This manifested in name-calling, sexual intimidation and sexual assault. But also in the way people talk about and treat the women. This contributed to the ?othering? of those women. This study showed that (A) heterosexual men were by far mentioned most in the interviews as perpetrators of violence against non-heterosexual women. This can be explained because the social hierarchy is based on a strict gender division. This division needs to be maintained in order to secure male domination and female submission.