Gender And Trauma: A Textual Analysis of Barry Lyga’s Boy Toy
Keywords:
Gender, Trauma, Gender Inequality, Sexual Abuse, Gender Stereotypes, Barry Lyga, Boy ToyAbstract
Trauma is an experience that is fundamentally beyond comprehension. It disrupts the victim's ability to process and understand the event fully, leading to a fragmented and delayed response whereas gender influences the experience and representation of trauma. This research papers examines psychological and emotional ramifications of trauma in general and gendered trauma in particular to highlight sexual abuse and its repercussions in Lyga's Boy Toy. Grounding the arguments on theoretical underpinnings of Trauma as contented by Cathy Caruth, the selected novel has been textually analyzed to explore and identify how trauma narratives are shaped by gender norms and expectations. This paper further walk around gender stereotypes an individual encounters at the hands of trauma and highlights that the prejudiced response towards them, is direct result of gender norms. The study maintains that gender performativity of the protagonist Josh, portrays how he manifests and deals with the trauma of sexual abuse. The paper concludes that gender inequality and bias of the society plays a role in strengthening the discrimination of trauma based on the gender of the victim as faced by Josh who is the victim of abuse, the narrative is sexualized, all while robbing the situation of the gravity that truly encompasses a victim experiencing trauma.
References
Alaggia, R. (2005). Disclosing the Trauma of Child Sexual Abuse: A Gender Analysis. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 10(5). doi:10.1080/15325020500193895
Arya, A. (2020). An Overview of Textual Analysis as a Research Method for Cultural Studies. International journal for innovative research in multidisciplinary field, 6(3), 173-177. doi:10.2015/IJIRMF.2455.0620/202003030
Azmi, M. N. (2018). A New Beginning of Trauma Theory in Literature. KnE Social Sciences, 3(4), 57–65. doi:10.18502/kss.v3i4.1918
Balaev, M. (2018). Trauma Studies. In D. H. Richter (Ed.), A Companion to Literary Theory (pp. 360-371). doi:10.1002/9781118958933.ch29
Brokke, S. S., Bertelsen, T. B., Landrø, N. I., & Haaland, V. Ø. (2022). The effect of sexual abuse and dissociation on suicide attempt. BMC Psychiatry, 22(29), 22-29. doi:10.1186/s12888-021-03662-9
Butler, J. (1999). Gender Trouble: Tenth Anniversary Edition (2 ed.). New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203902752
Caruth, C. (1996). Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, narrative, and history. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Christensen, L. S., & Darling, A. J. (2019). Sexual abuse by educators: a comparison between male and female teachers who sexually abuse students. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 26(1), 23-35. doi:10.1080/13552600.2019.1616119
Hohendorff, J. V., Habigzang, L. F., & Koller, S. H. (2017). “A boy, being a victim, nobody really buys that, you know?”: Dynamics of sexual violence against boys. Child Abuse & Neglect, 70, 53-64. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.05.008
Jaffe, A. E., Cero, I., & DiLillo, D. (2021). The #MeToo movement and perceptions of sexual assault: College students’ recognition of sexual assault experiences over time. Psychology of Violence, 11(2), 209-218. doi:10.1037/vio0000363
Janson, G. R., & Hazler, R. J. (2004). Trauma Reactions of Bystanders and Victims to Repetitive Abuse Experiences. Violence and Victims, Volume 19, Number 2, 19(2), 239-255.
Knoll, J. (2010). Teacher Sexual Misconduct: Grooming Patterns and Female Offenders. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 19(4), 371-386. doi:10.1080/10538712.2010.495047
Lyga, B. (2007). Boy toy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Mathews, B., & Collin-Vézina, D. (2019). Child Sexual Abuse: Toward a Conceptual Model and Definition. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 20(2), 131-148. doi:10.1177/1524838017738726
McKee, A. (2001). A beginner’s guide to textual analysis. Metro Magazine, 127, pp. 138-149.
Peterson, Z. D., Voller, E. K., Polusny, M. A., & Murdoch, M. (2011, 01 24). Prevalence and consequences of adult sexual assault of men: Review of empirical. Clinical Psychology Review, 31(1), 1-24. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2010.08.006
Purcell, D. W. (2006). Sexual Abuse of Males: The SAM Model of Theory and Practice. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 35(5), 621-623. doi:10.1007/s10508-006-9069-8
Russell, K. E. (2020). My Dark Vanessa. HarperCollins .
Russo, N. F., & Pirlott, A. (2006). Gender-Based Violence Concepts, Methods, and Findings. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1087(1), 178-205. doi:10.1196/annals.1385.024
Salih, S. (2007). On Judith Butler and Performativity.
Sangeado, S. R. (2016). Impact of Pornography Use in Adolescent Boys: Boys’ Self-Reports on Their Use of Pornography. Senior Honors Projects. Paper 477. University of Rhode Island. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog/477/
Toremans, T. (2003). Trauma: Theory – Reading (and) Literary Theory in the Wake of Trauma. European Journal of English Studies, 7(3), 333-351. doi:10.1076/ejes.7.3.333.27981
Wechsler, R. J. (2022). Victims as Instruments. 97 Washington Law Review, 507-580. Retrieved from https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/facpubs/1024
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
- The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
