Antithetical Gendered Stances in Readers’ Comments on Domestic Violence against Men

Abstract

Domestic violence against women (DVAW) has received much attention from scholars across disciplines, leading to a circumvention of studies on domestic violence against men (DVAM). This paper, therefore, engages in a qualitative dialogic analysis of readers’ comments on cases of DVAM reported in select blogs in order to elicit opposing gendered stances on DVAM in the selected readers’ comments; interpret the linguistic resources and interactional practices used in projecting the identified opposing stances; and explicate on the implications of the gendered stances on cases of DVAM in Nigeria. The data comprises 248 readers’ comments on cases of DVAM culled from the archives of Bella Naija and Linda Ikeji’s blogs. The two blogs constantly report on domestic issues. Haddington’s (2004) Stance taking model is adapted as the analytical framework. The study portrays opposing gender-based stances on DVAM in Nigeria in order to construe gendered perspectives on the phenomenon and to portray the dynamism of domestic violence (DV).

Keywords

• gendered stance
• antithesis
• readers’ comments
• domestic violence against men
• dialogism