Kvinnomisshandlare och maskulinitetens monstruösa framtid

Abstract

In this article, the monstrous “woman batterer” is used as a figuration and made a point of departure in order to destabilise masculine ontology. The monster is here seen as a deviant figure that gives meaning to the normal, but also as a figure that blurs the borders between the strange/unfamiliar and the known/familiar due to its contingent ontological position. This argument is developed by analysing two sources of material: a newspaper column by a conservative male author, which shows how partner-violent men are understood as monstrous woman batterers, who are seen as the Other of “normal”, gender-equal Swedish men; and qualitative interviews with 44 partner-violent men, demonstrating how they distance themselves from the “woman batterer” figure and instead understand the woman batterer as a deviant and monstrous masculinity, which they do not want to be associated with. The fact that “normal” men cannot completely disassociate from the monster makes it threatening – it endangers the ontological coherence of masculinity. Paradoxically, the woman batterer therefore enables a “monstrous future” – it opens up for a volatile and vulnerable masculine becoming.