“Domesticating” Violence: A Way to Refusing the Intergender Conflict

Abstract

Violence against women has been referred to by different names: «abuse», «domestic violence», «sexist violence», «gender violence», «domestic terrorism», etc. These denominations have pointed to an extension or a reduction of the behaviors that were considered to be violent in each particular period. This article will explore the conceptual changes which have taken place concerning violence against women in the Spanish State, over the last few decades. Through this process of nominal reconstruction a double movement can be observed: firstly, the type of conduct considered outside of the socially acceptable was progressively expanded, only later to restrict this behavior as «domestic violence» or «violence in family environments», all of which did nothing but hide the ultimate root of the problem: the domination of men over women.