Crashing bodies: towards an intersectional assemblage theory of domestic violence

Abstract

Domestic violence is commonly defined as violence ‘as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner’. This definition attempts to formulate domestic violence in universal and neutral terms that can be applied to any identity. However, in its attempted neutrality, this definition erases concrete experience at the intersections of identity leading to material processes against the bodies of LGBTQIA/BIPOC. Through a Deleuzo-Guattarian reading of Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality, Jasbir Puar finds a mode of theorising domestic violence through a combined approach to assemblage theory and intersectionality wherein concepts of identity and process provide conflicting and yet inseparable aspects of critical theory. Through developing an intersectional-assemblage theory to reformulate domestic violence as a central concept in understanding the workings of power and process, the nodes and switch points of oppression can be targeted through anti-violence abolitionist praxis.