Coercive-Violence, or coercive-force, is the idea that someone uses the threat of harm, or harm itself, to compel someone else to a desired end result. It happens in every type of relationship, or between strangers. It can be a complicated concept, so I hope to break it down enough to easily understand in this post.
As a human right, we should be able to give our go-ahead (or lack thereof) to things which will happen to our bodies. That freely given, clear go-ahead agreement is called Consent. When we don't give our consent, or are unable to do so, the action in question would then become non-consensual if it were to still happen. Pretty simple, right? Here's an example of lack of consent: I told him No. What is NOT considered consent?
Then we move on to the term: Force. When we think of force, images of physical altercations usually come to mind such as holding someone down or physically pushing them to do something. But there's an emotional aspect to force that many do not consider. Merriam-Webster defines force as:
Now we need to bring the term Coercion into play. Coercion is when someone uses fearful or forceful statements, words or acts to compel the person to make a certain decision or action. It is also described as extreme peer pressure, threatening, manipulation, badgering and/or bribing. Here's an example of coercion: I was told my child(ren) would be harmed if I did not agree. Putting it altogether, we can see that a non-consensual decision can sometimes lead to Coercive-Force or Coercive-Violence. If we feed together the examples listed above, we get this statement: "I told him no. He held or tied me to the bed. I was told my child(ren) would be harmed if I did not agree." I could think of a few scenarios off the top of my head to go with that statement, including birth stories, and none of them are okay. In no circumstances should it be okay to use coercive-violence. Even in childbirth. (Did that just spin your head around? Let me say it again...) It's is not okay for a birth worker or medical professional to:
For more on violence during childbirth, check out this post or What is Perinatal Violence.
5 Comments
daniela
2/13/2013 04:10:53 am
Crystal clear and appallingly real. There's even more going on... often they exert violence without even recurring to strength. It's enough simply not showing that there could be a different path to follow. Violence through lack of information :(
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2/17/2013 10:03:33 pm
Wow! This is scary. I'm glad that I was allowed to make my own decisions during the birth of my daughter. It's sad that people are still dealing with things like that in this day and age.
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DSLB
9/13/2013 11:22:24 pm
I was treated with so much violence and I was so violated, the doctor broke my water after reading my birth plan not to do so, he did without a word, he tore my vagina with his hands, he pushed against my vagina while my child was being born and cause more tares, he pulled my child by the head to get her out, detail, there was never a emergency, we both were doing well, he make me have an epidural when I was 8cm, I lost control of my lower body and it has been more the 6 months. My vagina healed 2cm open. That man destroyed my life. I have PTSD and I live a nightmare that never ends.
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PLR
7/7/2014 06:37:25 pm
DSLB I'm sorry to say you are not alone. My "just in case" emergency plan was not just ignored but went missing from my notes. On paper I look like an hysteric who deluded myself in to believing something was going to happen without really asking questions although I was very specific at the time. An 85 min "discussion" and the persuading by staff of my support that the plan would be returned to should surgery be necessary meant that pain was what was really used to make me give a parody of consent. Now people I know tell me I have no right to PTSD because I wasn't really harmed since staff just wanted to follow SOP's and a psychiatrist tells me there is no treatment that can help. You have all my sympathy and support.
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