This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (2) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by McGuffey, C. S. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Engendering Trauma

Race, Class, and Gender Reaffirmation after Child Sexual Abuse

Boston College

Using extra familial child sexual abuse (CSA) as an example of family trauma, the author interviewed 60 parents of sexually abused boys on multiple occasions to analyze the organization of gender, race, and class in parental coping processes. Despite access to alternative interpretations of CSA that challenge conventional notions of gender, parents in this study typically rely on traditional themes to make meaning of the CSA experience. The author organized the data analytically around gender strategies and found that parents used race- and class-specific gender strategies in the aftermath of trauma. Most important, mother-blame is theorized as a form of gender reaffirmation. The author uses the term gender reaffirmation to illustrate the way social actors recuperate after a situation has been interpreted as detrimental, challenging, or stressful to heteronormative gender relations. Mother-blaming accounts encouraged race and class enactments of gender that had negative consequences for women and helped maintain men’s cultural power.

Key Words: child sexual abuse • family • race • class • and gender • trauma

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Patrice Erdmans and T. Black What They Tell You to Forget: From Child Sexual Abuse to Adolescent Motherhood Qual Health Res, January 1, 2008; 18(1): 77 - 89. [Abstract] [PDF]