NORMALIZING SEXUAL VIOLENCE: Young Women Account for Harassment and Abuse HEATHER R. HLAVKA MARquETTE UniVERsiTy, USA DEspiTE high RATEs of gEndEREd VioLEncE Among youTh, VERy fEw young womEn REPORT ThEsE incidEnTs To AuThoRiTy figuREs. This sTudy moVEs ThE discussion fRom ThE quEsTion of why young womEn do noT REPORT ThEm TowARd how ViolEncE is pRoducEd, mAinTAinEd, And noR- mALizEd Among youTh. ThE giRLs in This study ofTEn did noT nAmE whAT LAw, RESEARchERs, And EducAToRs commonLy idEnTify As sExuAL hARAssmEnT And AbusE. How ThEn, do giRLs nAmE And mAKE sEnsE of VicTimizATion? ExpLoRing VioLEncE ViA ThE LEns of compuLsoRy hETERo- sExuALiTy highLighTs ThE RELATionAL dynAmics AT pLAy in This nAming pRocEss. FOREnsic inTERViEws with youTh REVEALEd pATTERns of hETERonoRmATiVE scRipTs AppRopRiATEd To n sEnsE of EVERydAy hARAssmEnT, ViolEncE, coERcion, And consEnT. Findings infoRm discus- sions AbouT ThE Links bETwEEn dominAnT discouRsEs And sExuAL subjEcTiViTiEs As WE TRY To bETTER undERSTAnd why mAny REgARd ViolEncE A noRmAL PART of LifE. Keywords: sExuAL AbusE; hARAssmEnT; RAPE; youTh; AdoLEscEncE C Noming up against "tHe wall of patriarchy" (Gilligan 1990, 503), early adolescence is a defining period for young women. Many regard Harassment and violence to be a normal part of everyday life in middle and HigH scHools (Fineran and Bennett 1999), yet most of these crimes go unreported. A 2011 American Association of University Women (AAUW AUTHOR'S NOTE: ThE AuThoR wishEs To ThAnK ThE ChiLdREn's AdVocAcy CEnTER foR dATA AccEss And RESEARch suppoRT ThRoughouT This pRojEcT And foR hELpfuL commEnTs And suggEs- Tions fRom SEVERAL Anonymous REVIEWERs. ShE ALso gRATEfuLLy AcKnowLEdgEs ThE finAnciA suppoRT fRom ThE UniVERsiTy of MinnEsoTA GRAduATE School And A MARquETTE UniVERsiTy REguLAR RESEARch GRANT (IRB pRoTocoL numbER HR-1818). CORREspondEncE concERning This ARTicLE should bE AddREssEd To HEATHER R. HLAVKA, MARquETTE UniVERsiTy, 30 LALumiERE HALL, P.O. Box 1881, MiLwAuKEE, WI 53201, USA; E-MAIL: HEATHERHLAVKA@ MARquETTE.Edu. GENDER & SOCIETY, Vol. 28 No. 3, June 2014 337-358 DOI: 10.1177/0891243214526468 C 2014 by THe AutHor(s) 337
338 GENDER & SOCIETY / JUne 2014 2011) study found tHat almost Half (48 percent) of tHe 1,965 students sur- veyed experienced Harassment, but only 9 percent reported tHe incident to an authority figure. Girls were sexually Harassed more tHan boys (56 per- cent vs. 40 percent); they were more likely to be pressured for a date, pressured into sexual activity, and verbally Harassed (AAUW 2001; Fineran and Bennett 1999). According to prevalence studies, reported violence in adolescent dating relationsHips ranges between 8.8 and 40 percent (Sousa 1999). Data from tHe YoutH Risk BeHavior Survey (YRBS) sHow tHat almost 20 percent of girls experience physical and sexual violence from dating partners (Silverman et al. 2001), and sexual assault accounts for one-third of pre- teen victimization (FinkelHor and Ormrod 2000). It is tempting to ask: WHy do so few young women formally report tHeir victimization experi- ences? Assuming tHat peer sexual Harassment and assault is an instrument tHat creates and maintains gendered and sexed Hierarchies (e.g., Mackinnon 1979; PHillips 2000; Tolman et al. 2003), attention instead must turn