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Costa, LeeRay M. and Andrew Matzner. "Abusing Images: Domestic Violence in Thai Cartoon Books." Intersections 8 2002. Accessed 25Jul. 2009. <http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue8/costa.html>. 
Added by: joachim (7/20/09, 1:28 AM)   Last edited by: joachim (4/10/10, 6:09 PM)
Resource type: Web Article
Language: en: English
Peer reviewed
BibTeX citation key: Costa2002
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Categories: General
Keywords: Asia, Gender, Sexuality, Thailand, Violence
Creators: Costa, Matzner
Collection: Intersections
Views: 30/1388
Attachments   URLs   http://intersectio ... /issue8/costa.html
Abstract
In this essay we have several goals. The first is to draw attention to Thai popular culture in general as a worthy area of study. While research on popular culture has grown rapidly since the work of the Frankfurt School in the 1960s, examinations of this topic within the field of Thai studies have only recently gathered pace. In particular, we are interested in exploring the ways that various forms of popular culture represent gender relations in Thailand. Our second goal is to argue that as a more than three billion baht per year industry, and as products consumed by both male and female readers of all ages, comic books in Thailand deserve analytical scrutiny. Our third goal is to identify and problematise the relationship between patterns of domestic violence found in Thai comic books, discourses of gender and sexuality, and the realities of domestic violence as indicated by research undertaken by Thai women's organisations and scholars. It is noteworthy that the images of domestic abuse, which frequently appear in comic books generally, feature wives physically assaulting their husbands. In light of research that indicates that women, not men, are the primary victims of domestic violence in Thai households, we argue that the images found in comic books are themselves abusive in their further misrepresentation and silencing of violence against women. Comic book images also make violence in the family a topic of humour, which likely has contradictory effects. The presence of cartoons featuring spouse abuse raises questions regarding the role which popular culture plays in disseminating and reproducing gender ideology, and how such images might be implicated in the perpetuation of domestic violence and gender inequality. At the same time, we do not deny that such images may operate as a medium of resistance by women who interpret them in alternative ways. Thus, we also critically assess the possibility that cartoon images might provide a productive arena for challenging and helping to eliminate domestic abuse against women.
Added by: joachim  Last edited by: joachim
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