As people living our daily lives, we do not conceive of ourselves in terms of labels or categories assigned to us by statisticians or experts.

Labels are reductive because they are intended to impose order on that which is never orderly, and being generic, they serve to deflect attention from people’s complex realities. 

The themes of domestic violence and gender-based violence very often implicate the use of the words ‘victim’ and ‘survivor’. The subsequent arguments and discourses tend to ignore the fact that these anonymous ‘victims’ or ‘survivors’, although sharing experiences that may seem similar at first glance, are always very particular individuals living in different situations and circumstances.   

The term ‘victim’ evokes the abused person as trapped, whereas ‘survivors’ come across as agents.

One of the central advantages of using the victim concept is the quality of innocence, and the fact that ‘real’ victims are completely uninvolved in their victimisation.

On the other hand, victimhood implies weakness, vulnerability and lack of agency.

These meanings may impact the self-perception of individuals who have experienced domestic violence. For example, for a woman who evaluates herself from the victim perspective, the experience of sexual violence becomes the over-arching episode in her life and can influence and control her self-esteem.

On the contrary, the term ‘survivor’ evokes the image of  strength and resilience, but may also serve to diminish or even invalidate the suffering and hardship that  individuals may be going through – perhaps a bit like calling someone a winner when they are still trying to process the advent or development of a calamity.

In general, there is converging evidence for clear differences in the perceived meanings of the labels ‘victim’ and ‘survivor’. Research findings indicate that women who were presented as survivors of domestic violence tended to be blamed less than those described as ‘victims’.

Role of media

Media reporting plays an important role in how a person who has experienced domestic or sexual violence comes across to the public. The majority of images used in media reporting of such cases portray women as weak and helpless, as opposed to strong and with agency.

Typical photographs identified by researchers would show a woman in a dark alleyway, crouching on the floor with her arms covering her face.

This kind of photograph is referred to as a victim image, whereas a survivor image would present women who have experienced sexual violence as being active and possessing greater self-efficacy.

The term ‘survivor’ evokes the image of strength but may also serve to diminish the suffering- Audrey Friggieri

An example of such an image would be a picture showing a self-help group of sexual violence survivors, or a woman in a session with a female counsellor.

Images are an important part of print as well as online news outlets, and their impact on readers is substantial. It is thus important that the range of pictures used by news agencies is varied and more respectful to human dignity when writing about domestic violence or gender-based violence.

Social contexts created by systems of power (such as class and gender) and oppression shape our lives. No one dimension, such as gender inequality, is more enlightening than others in explaining domestic violence. Indeed, gender inequality itself is impacted by other circumstances.

Research informs us that domestic violence can affect any of us at all, which is true, albeit blind to difference. The statement implies that all people can share a common experience (or also threat) of violence.

Impact on treatment

Different dimensions in our lives, such as sexuality, class, disability and race, shape how we experience phenomena, including abuse and violence. These dimensions also impact treatment and access to help and safety (Sokoloff & Dupont, 2005).

For example, studies show that women who have been taught that saving face and family unity come before individual safety are often reluctant to seek outside help for domestic violence.

Similarly, African American individuals often do not consider reporting domestic violence out of fear of racist treatment of their partners by the police and criminal justice system, and they also do not wish to fuel racist stereotypes of black people as violent.

Research findings also indicate that lesbians who are not out, or voluntarily open about their sexual orientations, may not speak at all about the abuse in their relationships (Clarke, 2020; Donovan & Barnes, 2020).

Homophobia may prevent many LGBTIQ individuals from getting out of abusive relationships because they may fear negative responses from others: the police, family members, religious institutions, for example (Townsend & Bailey, 2021).

Studies show that women with disability are twice as likely to experience domestic abuse and to suffer assault and rape. They are afraid to speak up when living  under the same roof of their abuser,  especially if they are trapped with them at home, or reliant on them for money or care (Meseguer-Santamaría et al, 2021).

Older people who are being abused by their adult children may be reticent to seek help due to fear of adverse consequences for their adult child (Dow  et al, 2020).

The myriad lived experiences of domestic abuse and gender-based violence deserve to be acknowledged in dominant discourses referring to them.

We should strive for more conscious, differentiated, and respectful linguistic and conceptual terms, as research demonstrates the complexity of experiencing and communicating about these phenomena and their outcomes.

Audrey Friggieri is commissioner, Commission on Gender-based Violence and Domestic Violence.