The Sociology of Gaslighting:
★ Gaslighting = A type of psychological abuse aimed at making victims question
themselves (make them feel/seem crazy), creating a “surreal” interpersonal
environment
- In sociology, it is rooted in social inequalities such as gender, and is
executed in power-laden relationships
- Gaslighting is consequential when perpetrators mobilize gender-based
stereotypes and structural + institutional inequalities against victims to
manipulate their realities
- Gaslighting is a gendered phenomenon- women do not typically have the
cultural, economic, and political capital necessary to gaslight men
- Gaslighting tactics construct victims in terms of feminized irrationality
- Gaslighting is common in domestic violence situations, preventing women
from accessing resources
Sexuality + Gaslighting:
- Attacks on sexual respectability were a regular part of intimate abuse,
rooted in association of female sexuality with deviousness, danger, and
threat
- Cultural ideas about women’s dangerous, unruly sexuality (stereotypes
surrounding Black + Latina “bad girl” sexuality underlie attempts to
unmake their realities
- Abusers frequently defined women’s sexuality as reckless, devious, and in
the need of masculine control
★ Gaslighting = A type of psychological abuse aimed at making victims question
themselves (make them feel/seem crazy), creating a “surreal” interpersonal
environment
- In sociology, it is rooted in social inequalities such as gender, and is
executed in power-laden relationships
- Gaslighting is consequential when perpetrators mobilize gender-based
stereotypes and structural + institutional inequalities against victims to
manipulate their realities
- Gaslighting is a gendered phenomenon- women do not typically have the
cultural, economic, and political capital necessary to gaslight men
- Gaslighting tactics construct victims in terms of feminized irrationality
- Gaslighting is common in domestic violence situations, preventing women
from accessing resources
Sexuality + Gaslighting:
- Attacks on sexual respectability were a regular part of intimate abuse,
rooted in association of female sexuality with deviousness, danger, and
threat
- Cultural ideas about women’s dangerous, unruly sexuality (stereotypes
surrounding Black + Latina “bad girl” sexuality underlie attempts to
unmake their realities
- Abusers frequently defined women’s sexuality as reckless, devious, and in
the need of masculine control
