Hashtags, testimonies, and measurements: Gender violence and its interpretation

In this article, I address gender violence through the act of witnessing and speaking out by the victims. Starting from a critical comment on some arguable points raised in the recent Hau journal forum aimed at discussing forms and claims of the #MeToo movement, I let emerge the conundrums that anthropology faces in dealing with the issue. A focus on domestic abuse as a specific form of gender violence allows me to delve into the twine of intimacy, agency and consent in the experience of the victims. I detect the specific dynamics that characterize the issue of speaking/not speaking out against violence by abused women and that underpin analytical biases. Then, I illustrate how these complexities can be found in the general assessment and measurement of gender violence as a global phenomenon. I conclude with a reflection on violence and women’s voices as an opportunity for anthropological knowledge to deal with truth telling, intimacy, and the gendered act of speaking out.