Exploring Sexual Coercion Within Marriage in Rural Cambodia

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Exploring Sexual Coercion Within Marriage in Rural Cambodia Exploring Sexual Coercion within Marriage in Rural Cambodia Rany Saing Primary Supervisor: Dr. Panteá Farvid Secondary Supervisor: Professor Jane Koziol-McLain A Thesis submitted to Auckland University of Technology in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy (Psychology) Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences 19 June 2017 1 Abstract Sexual coercion within marriage includes any acts from forcing or attempting to force a spouse to engage in sexual behavior against his or her will. This can be through violence, threats, verbal insistence, deception, cultural expectation, or economic circumstance. Married women in Cambodia, particularly in rural areas, are bound strongly with the traditional gender norms and women’s code of conduct (Chbab Srey). Chbab Srey requires the women to do household chores, stay at home, strongly respect their husbands, highly value their husband, and keep any spousal argument secret. This norm also requires women to be submissive in sexual matters. The present study aimed to explore sexual coercion within heterosexual marriage in Aoral and Thpong districts in Kampong Speu, Cambodia. This exploratory qualitative study conducted in-depth interviews with 11 married women, aged 19 to 47, about their view and experience of marriage, their sexual lives within marriage, and experience of coercive sex within marriage. The research was thematically analyzed and eight themes were identified. The results showed that there was strong connection between traditional gender norms and women’s coercive victimization within marriage in Cambodia. As a result of their coercive sexual experiences, the women experienced a lack of bodily autonomy and sexual desire. Participants who have experienced mild sexual coercion such as verbal coercion, psychological coercion or arousal coercion, are not able to acknowledge it as a problem because coercive sex was too tightly bound with traditional gender norms. However, the women still discussed experiencing some negative impacts on their psychological and physical health. For a few women who had experienced severe sexual coercion, they were capable to recognize it as an issue and therefore were more likely to use a variety of protective strategies in order to cope with it. The current research concludes with some suggestions for further research to investigate the obvious connection between the traditional sexual scripts and men’s sexual coercion with their intimate partners. Key words: Sexual coercion within marriage, Women’s code of conduct, Traditional gender norms, Coercive victimization, Protective strategies, sexual scripts 1 Table of Contents Attestation of Authorship ................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... viii Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Cambodian women .............................................................................................................. 1 Acquiring sexual knowledge ............................................................................................... 3 Sexual experience pre-marital life ....................................................................................... 4 Masturbation ........................................................................................................................ 5 Married women ................................................................................................................... 6 Domestic violence ............................................................................................................... 8 Rape within marriage .......................................................................................................... 8 Sexual Coercion within marriage ........................................................................................ 9 Women with high levels of tolerance in intimate partner violence ................................... 10 Overview of thesis ............................................................................................................. 12 Chapter two: Literature review ......................................................................................... 14 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 14 Sexual coercion tactics ...................................................................................................... 15 Sexual coercion in intimate relationships .......................................................................... 17 Traditional sexual discourses of heterosexuality .............................................................. 17 Gender ideology and sexual coercion ............................................................................... 20 Consent and decision making patterns on sexual matters ................................................. 22 Negative outcomes of sexual coercion .............................................................................. 25 Chapter summary .............................................................................................................. 26 ii Chapter three: Method ....................................................................................................... 28 Epistemology: Critical Realism ........................................................................................ 28 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 29 Participant recruitment ...................................................................................................... 29 Participant demographics .................................................................................................. 30 Data collection ................................................................................................................... 31 Method of data analysis ..................................................................................................... 33 Ethical consideration ......................................................................................................... 34 Fieldwork .......................................................................................................................... 36 Reflexivity ......................................................................................................................... 38 Chapter summary .............................................................................................................. 39 Chapter four: Analytic results (1) ..................................................................................... 40 Gender roles within the home ........................................................................................... 40 The gendering of sexual knowledge .................................................................................. 49 Lack of sexual communication within marriage ............................................................... 55 Men’s influence on women’s reproductive matters .......................................................... 56 Chapter summary .............................................................................................................. 60 Chapter five: Analytic results (2) ...................................................................................... 61 Coercion within marriage sexual scripts ........................................................................... 61 Accounts of sexual coercion and assault ........................................................................... 76 Negative outcomes of sexual coercion .............................................................................. 87 Women’s protective strategies .......................................................................................... 93 Chapter summary .............................................................................................................. 96 Chapter six: Discussion ...................................................................................................... 98 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 98 Brief summary ................................................................................................................... 98 iii Gender roles within the home .......................................................................................... 98 The gendering of sexual knowledge ............................................................................... 100 Lack of sexual communication within marriage ............................................................ 102 Men’s influence on women’s reproductive matters ....................................................... 103 Coercion within marriage sexual scripts ........................................................................ 104 Accounts of sexual coercion and assault ........................................................................ 107 Negative outcomes of sexual coercion ..........................................................................
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