| Abstrakt: |
This chapter details the author's description of the approach taken to research on lesbian partner abuse. My work on lesbian abuse seeks to tell troubling tales, not pretending that lesbians are unified where we are not, while at the same time providing solid information that can be acted upon to change conditions for the better and respond to lesbians who have experienced abuse. I use the term tale to foreground the fictive dimensions of all research and research findings. In this study, for example, I interviewed women who had been in abusive relationships and who told me their stories. I have been researching abuse in lesbian relationships for a number of years now, relying on a variety of approaches including interviews, surveys and a training/education project with shelter workers. Another telling tale in this research can be told, however, through a critical, deconstructive lens where I can consider the discursive conditions in the work that I am doing. The three tales that I have presented here frame the remaining chapters where I keep the strands of material, discursive and reflexive analyses firmly woven into the fabric of the book. These tales are troubled, risky and reveal the dangers of knowledge. |
