Abstract
In Violence in Everyday Life: Power, Gender, and Sexuality, Dr Aliraza Javaid explores the relationship between gender, sexuality, violence, and power by critically reviewing scholarly work, surveying case studies, and analyzing an autoethnographic account. In the book’s introduction, Dr Javaid explains the goals of the book, along with its targeted audience. He explains that the book is meant to highlight “the ways in which constructs of gender and sexuality interlink with different forms of violence” (p. 4). Each of the eight chapters of the book provides a critical review of the literature on acts of violence and the roles played by power, gender, and sexuality within each of their respective subjects.
In chapter one, “Contextualizing and Understanding Masculinities and Sexualities,” Dr Javaid begins by broadly summarizing several historical perspectives of the construction of gender and sexuality, especially with the ideological divide between biological positivistic and social constructivist views of gender. In chapters two through six, Dr Javaid deconstructs several different types of “gendered” violence by critically evaluating the literature on each (particularly sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and violence motivated by hate). The focus of each of these chapters is to explore the complex relationship between power, gender, and violence. The author draws from a wide variety of classic and contemporary sociological works in the areas of gender and masculinity. Among many others, Dr Javaid includes the scholarly work of James Messerschmidt, R. W. Connell, Michael Messner, Gregory Herek, and C.J. Pascoe.
Importantly, Dr Javaid uses much of this work to explore violence against trans people. In chapter six, “Transphobic Violence: The Fear of the ‘Other’,” Dr. Javaid contextualizes violence against trans people with literature on heteronormativity and power relationships. He explains that the process of “othering” trans people is key to perpetuating violence against trans people. He writes, Trans people induce a moral panic for others because they present themselves as crossing boundaries that dismantle heteronormativity in the family, in the education system, in religious establishments, and in many other social institutions that seek to deny them of their right to sexual liberation. (p. 163)
Dr Javaid also strives to include cross-cultural cases. In chapter seven, “Global Violence,” he broadly surveys not only violence against women, but also homophobic violence and violence against trans people in both the Global South and the Global North. Although this chapter is not as detailed as the other chapters, it does provide a good overview of violence across the world from the perspective of Western sociology.
Finally, chapter eight, “Secrets Untold: Tales of Violence,” is Dr Javaid’s autoethnographic work on violence in his own life. The autoethnographic account details several examples of violence that match the themes explored in the rest of the book, particularly related to being “othered,” after he recounted being targeted due to both his race/ethnicity and his sexual orientation/gender expression. Dr Javaid’s autoethnography is contextualized within the scholarly literature and demonstrates not only the value of this mode of qualitative research for in-depth analysis, but also demonstrates the value of autoethnography for Dr Javaid’s personal mental health. At the end of the chapter, he explains, “Writing this chapter [. . .] has helped me to break the shackles of intrusive historical memories that have restrained my life in unproductive ways” (p. 228).
Dr Javaid notes that the book is targeted primarily at students, but also at researchers. The book is written in such a way that it is well-suited to students who already have some knowledge of the concepts presented—such as students in upper-level electives in gender or sexuality studies, or certain classes in sociology or criminology which explore gendered violence from a theoretical perspective. This book would be especially valuable to those students who have been exposed to Messerschmidt’s work on masculinity or other work on gender, or to graduate students who have more knowledge in general on some of these subjects. At the end of each chapter, Dr Javaid includes some questions that are well-suited to reflective essay prompts, in-class discussion starters, or discussion points for small groups in a classroom. His autoethnographic work at the end of the book would be well-suited to a qualitative methods class, or a section on qualitative methodology in a graduate or undergraduate research methods class.
Researchers or scholars may also benefit from having this book in their collection because of the breadth of literature it surveys. Although much of the book is centered primarily in the United Kingdom, Dr Javaid does bring in many examples and cases from outside of the United Kingdom (including the entirety of chapter seven). As such, scholars seeking a starting point for studying violence outside of the United States would greatly benefit from reading this book.