Her Name Was is an examination of the oppression of transgender people in a society that is built on the nominalization of cisgender people, those who gender matchers their sex assigned at birth, and how this oppression lends itself to violence. In the summer of 2015, the body of Shade Schuler, an African American transgender woman, was found in a field outside of Dallas, Texas. Ms. Shade is part of an alarming epidemic of escalating levels of targeted violence against the transgender community. This documentary pulls back the curtain as it captures the feelings and struggles of the transgender community as they attempt to navigate and survive in a cis dominating society.

The extremely high rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) experienced by Black women in community supervision programs (CSPs) who use drugs represents a major public health concern given the vast overrepresentation of Black women in the criminal legal system compared to non-Hispanic white women due to racialized drug laws and policies. National IPV surveillance data suggest that the rates of IPV in this population may be even higher among Black women who have sex with women and men (WSWM) in CSPs who use drugs. However, there remains a dearth of research that centers the experience of Black WSWM. Fear of experiencing police violence and experiences of racial and sexual discrimination pose additional challenges for Black WSMW in CSPs who use drugs to access both IPV and a broader range of services. No studies, to date, have examined typologies of IPV and its association to accessing IPV-related services among Black women with multiple intersecting minoritized identities including substance use, sexual behavior, and criminal-legal involvement. To address these gaps, this dissertation: 1) Identified typologies of IPV; 2) Examined how membership to latent classes is associated with use of core IPV services; and 3) Explored underlying mechanisms that may link IPV class, sexual behavior, and access to and utilization of IPV-related services. This dissertation study uses a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach with 1) secondary baseline survey data from Project EWORTH, a NIDA-funded HIV intervention study of 352 Black, drug-involved women mandated to CSPs and 2) primary qualitative follow-up data with participants from the same study to inform findings from the secondary data analysis. This dissertation found positive significant associations between having had both male and female sexual partners and more types and greater severity of IPV. Additionally, there was a significant, positive association between more types and greater severity of IPV and lifetime use of an order of protection. WSWM had a significantly higher odds of lifetime use of a DV shelter. Of interest, WSWM moderated the effect of people experiencing more severe violence accessing DV shelters. Qualitative interviews revealed unique forms of IPV such as feeling coerced to take a criminal charge for their partner and spiritual abuse, both of which are not captured with standard IPV measures or discussed broadly in IPV literature. Additionally, CSP staff served as an important link to services among these women. Overall, these results suggest that more inclusive IPV screening, referral to service, and actual services, as well as providing training for service providers that consider the effects of multiple, marginalized identities has on experience of IPV, and access to and use of services among Black women in the criminal legal system.

Thesis (DPhil (Social Work))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This is an exploratory study on the perceptions and experiences of African women in violent partner relationships. The study was conducted in two phases at Ilitha Community Psychological Centre at Ezibeleni Township near Queenstown. Since this is a qualitative exploratory study, in-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of twenty women. In addition a focus group interview was also conducted with five women from the same site in order to gain a better insight into the phenomenon of violence in partner relationships. A literature review that focused on the existing literature concerning African women in violent partner relationships was conducted. African women’s perspectives on the experiences of abuse were explored, a gender perspective based on radical feminist views was discussed and ethnicsensitive empowerment needs and the role of the social service practitioners were investigated. The findings suggest that many African women experience violence in partner relationships. They sustain physical, emotional and economic abuse. A patriarchal system, alcohol abuse, infidelity and failure to support the children financially have been cited as some of the reasons for abuse. Formal and informal social networks assisted these women to some extent. However, there is need for an ethnic-sensitive interdisciplinary training approach and a legal system that is accessible to rural women to prevent further battery. Various recommendations have been postulated. The study indicated a need for ethnic-sensitive empowerment programmes for the abused women, rehabilitative programmes for these women and for the abusers, and an effective legal system to curb violence in partner relationships. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie, wat verkennend van aard is, handel oor die persepsies en ervaringe van Afrikavroue wat binne gewelddadige saamwoonverhoudings verkeer. Die studie is in twee fases by die Ilitha Community Psychological Centre en die Ezibeleniwoonbuurt naby Queenstown onderneem. Aangesien dit ’n kwalitatief-verkennende studie is, is diepgaande onderhoude met ’n eksperimentele groep van twintig vroue gevoer. Hierbenewens is fokusgroeponderhoude ook met vyf vroue van dieselfde buurt gevoer ten einde beter insig te verkry van die fenomeen van geweld binne saamwoonverhoudings. ’n Studie van relevante literatuur wat op bestaande literatuur ten opsigte van Afrika-vroue in gewelddadige saamwoonverhoudings betrekking het, is onderneem. Die perspektiewe van Afrika-vroue oor die wyse waarop hulle mishandeling ervaar, is verken. ’n Geslagsgebaseerde perspektief gebaseer op feministiese beskouinge is onderling bespreek en die behoefte aan etniessensitiewe bemagtigingsbehoeftes asook die rol van sosiale diensleweringspraktisyns het aandag geniet. Die bevindinge dui daarop dat ‘n groot aantal Afrika-vroue geweld binne saamwoonverhoudings ervaar. Hulle ondervind fisieke, emosionele en ekonomiese mishandeling. ’n Patriargale stelsel, alkoholmisbruik, ontrouheid, en gebrek aan geldelike versorging van die kinders binne die gesin, is genoem as sommige van die redes vir die mishandeling. Formele en informele netwerke het hierdie vroue in ’n sekere mate bygestaan. Daar bestaan egter ’n behoefte aan ’n etnies-sensitiewe interdissiplinêre opleidingsbenadering asook ’n regstelsel wat toeganklik is vir landelike vroue om verdere mishandeling te voorkom. Verskeie aanbevelings is gepostuleer. Die studie het aangetoon dat daar ’n behoefte bestaan aan etnies-sensitiewe bemagtigingsprogramme vir mishandelde vroue, rehabilitasieprogramme vir sodanige vroue asook vir diegene wat hulle mishandel, en ’n effektiewe regstelsel om geweld binne saamwoonverhoudings aan bande te lê.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis puts the fiction of Zoë Wicomb and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie into conversation with particular reference to three issues: authorship, history and gender. Apart from anything else, what Wicomb and Adichie have in common is an interest in the representation of marginalised or minority ethnic groups within the nation - the coloured people in the case of Wicomb, and the Igbo in the case of Adichie. Yet what both writers also have in common is that neither seems to advocate the reification of these ethnic groups in reformulations of nationalist discourse. The thesis argues that through their focus on various forms of marginality, both Wicomb and Adichie destabilise traditional notions of nation, authorship, history, gender identity, the boundary between domestic and public life, and the idea of “home”. The thesis focuses on four main topics, each of which is covered in a chapter: the question of authorial voice in relation to history; perspectives offered by women characters in relation to oppressive or traumatic historical moments; oppressive or traumatic histories intruding into the intimate domestic space; and the issue of transnational migration and its (un)homely effects. Employing concepts of metafiction and mise-en-abyme self-reflexivity, the study begins by considering the ways in which Wicomb’s David’s Story and Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun both reflect on the idea of authorship. Focusing on the ways in which each text draws the reader into witnessing authorship, the thesis argues that the two novels can be put into conversation as they both stage dilemmas about authorship in relation to those marginalised by national histories. Following on from this idea of marginalisation by nationalist histories, the thesis then proceeds to examine both writers’ foregrounding of women’s stories that are set in oppressive and/or violent historical times – under apartheid in the case of Wicomb’s You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town, and during the Biafran war in the case of Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun. Utilising ideas about gender, history and literary history by Tiyambe Zeleza, Florence Stratton and Elleke Boehmer, the study analyses how, beginning with father-daughter relationships, Wicomb and Adichie wean their female characters from their fathers’ control so that they may begin telling their own stories that complicate and subvert the stories that their fathers represent. Drawing on Sigmund Freud’s theory of “the uncanny” and Homi Bhabha’s postcolonial reading of that theory, the study then turns to discuss the ways in which oppressive national histories become manifest in domestic spaces (that are usually marginalised in national histories), turning those spaces into unhomely homes, in Wicomb’s Playing in the Light and Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. In both novels, purity (whether racial or religious) is cultivated in the family home, but this cultivation of purity, which is reflected symbolically in the kinds of gardens each family grows, evidently has “unhomely” effects that signal the return of the repressed, of that which is disavowed in discourses of purity. Since both Wicomb and Adichie are African-born women authors living abroad, and since the “unhomely” aspects of transnational existence are reflected upon in their fiction, the study finally considers the forms of marginality to the national posed by the migrant. Transnational migration is examined in Wicomb’s The One That Got Away and in Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck, placing stories from these two recently published sets of short stories into dialogue. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis plaas die fiksie van Zoë Wicomb en Chimamandi Ngozi Adichie in gesprek met mekaar, met verwysing na veral drie sake: outeurskap, geskiedenis en geslag (gender). Afgesien van ander kwessies het die fiksie van Wicomb en Adichie ‘n belangstelling in die fiktiewe voorstelling van gemarginaliseerde of minderheidsgroepe in die nasie in gemeen – die kleurlinggroep in die geval van Wicomb en die Igbo in die geval van Adichie. Nogtans beveel geeneen van hierdie twee skrywers ‘n reïfikasie van nasionalistiese diskoers aan nie. Die tesis voer aan dat, deur hulle fokus op verskeie vorme van marginaliteit, beide Wicomb en Adichie tradisionele konsepte van nasionalisme, skrywer-skap, geskiedenis, geslagsidentiteit, die grens tussen private en publieke lewe en die idee van ‘n eie tuiste destabiliseer. Die vier hoof-onderwerpe van die tesis is word elk in ‘n eie hoofstuk behandel: die kwessie van ‘n skrywerstem in verhouding tot die geskiedenis; perspektiewe wat belig word deur vrouekarakters in kontekste van onderdrukkende of traumatiese historiese momente; hoedat onderdrukkings- of traumatiese geskiedenisse die private sfeer binnedring; asook die kwessie van ‘n migrasie oor landsgrense en die ontheimingseffek hiervan. Deur die gebruik van metafisiese en mise-en-abyme selfrefleksie begin die studie deur te reflekteer op hoe Wicomb se David’s Story en Adichie se Half of a Yellow Sun [aangaande] die idee van outeurskap reflekteer. Deur te fokus op die wyses waarop beide tekste die leser betrek om skrywerskap waar te neem, voer die tesis aan dat die twee romans met mekaar in gesprek geplaas kan word, terwyl albei dilemmas van outeurskap met betrekking tot diegene wat in nasionale geskiedskrywing gemarginaliseer word, sentraal plaas. Volgende op hierdie kwessie gaan die tesis dan voort om albei skrywers se vooropstelling van vroue se verhale gesitueer in onderdrukkende of gewelddadige tye – onder apartheid in die geval van Wicomb se You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town en gedurende die Biafraanse oorlog in Adichie se Half of a Yellow Sun – te ondersoek. Met behulp van idees aangaande gender, geskiedenis en literêre geskiedenis van Tiyambe Zeleza, Florence Stratton en Elleke Boehmer, analiseer die tesis hoedat, beginnende met vader-dogter verhoudings, Wicomb en Adichie hul vroulike karakters loswikkel van hul vaders se kontrole sodat hulle kan begin om hul eie verhale te vertel – stories wat die verhale van hul vaders kompliseer en ondermyn. Met behulp van Sigmund Freud se teorie van die onheimlike en Homi Bhabha se postkolonialistiese interpretasie van daardie idee, gaan die tesis dan voort deur maniere waarop onderdrukkende nasionale geskiedenisse in die tuis-ruimtes (wat gewoonlik deur nasionale geskiedskrywing gemarginaliseer word) manifesteer, met die onheimlike effek hiervan op die tuisruimte – beide in Wicomb se Playing in the Light en in Adichie se Purple Hibiscus – te ondersoek. In albei romans word reinheid ( van ras of geloof) in die familie-tuiste gekultiveer, maar hierdie nadruk op reinheid – simbolies gereflekteer in die tuine wat deur albei gesinne aangelê word – het wel onmiskenbare onheimlike gevolge wat die terugkeer van wat onderdruk is (in die naam van reinheid) aandui. Omdat beide Wicomb en Adichie vroue-skrywers is wat in Afrika gebore is maar oorsee lewe, en omdat die onheimlike aspekte van ‘n transnasionale lewensstyl in hul fiksie oorweeg word, beskryf die tesis die vorms van marginaliteit met betrekking tot die nasionale wat deur die migrant tot stand kom. Transnasionale migrasie word in Wicomb se The One that Got Away en Adichie se The Thing around your Neck oorweeg, wat die verhale uit hierdie twee versamelings in gesprek met mekaar plaas.

This purpose of this study was to combine two bodies of literature on relationships, attachment and violence. Given the impact of men's physical aggression and emotional abuse on women, it is likely that these behaviors would also affect attachment. A model proposing that women's attachment style mediated and moderated the relationship between partners' physical and emotional abuse and the stability of women's relationships was tested. Archival data were used from two waves of interviews with a sample of lowincome, ethnically diverse community women. Most (89%) of the initial 835 participants of Project HOW: Health Outcomes of Women completed at least one additional interview providing information on the status of their initial relationships. Of these women, 39% were African American, 30% were Euro-American, and 31% were Mexican American. The effects of men's psychological abuse and physical violence on women's attachment style were tested with regression analyses. The interrelationships between partners' abuse, attachment and relational stability were tested with SEM. Attachment style was expected to moderate the associations among variables and mediate the impact of partners' negative behavior on relational stability. In regression analyses, partners' psychological abuse predicted avoidant and anxious, but not secure attachment ratings. Violence, although significant, explained less variance than psychological abuse for insecure attachment ratings. SEM indicated Physical Aggression was not a significant predictor of Attachment Rating in any group. Moderation was not found. There were no differences between attachment groups. Therefore, attachment was tested in the sample as a mediator. As in analyses for each group, the path from Physical Aggression to Attachment Rating was not significant. In the final model, Emotional Abuse predicted Physical Aggression and Attachment Rating mediated the effect of Emotional Abuse on Relational Stability. Specifically, Emotional Abuse increased (insecure) Attachment Rating, which decreased Relational Stability. Overall, previous research in the violence literature was extended by showing that emotional abuse affected attachment, rather than the reverse.

This longitudinal study examined factors influencing the relationship between sustained partner violence and depression/suicidality among ethnically diverse, low income, community women. The sample at Wave 1 consisted of 303 African American, 273 Euro-American, and 260 Mexican American women in long term relationships with a household income less that twice the poverty threshold. There were no ethnic differences on frequency of partner violence, depression, or suicidality. The moderate relationship between partner violence and women's depression, confirmed previous findings. Frequency, but not recency, of violence predicted depression and suicidal ideation for African Americans and Mexican Americans, even after controlling for earlier depression or ideation. Recent violence did not predict Euro-American's depression or suicidality after controlling for initial scores. Causal and responsibility attributions for partners' violence did not mediate the relationship between violence and depression or suicidality in any ethnic group. However, African American women's attributions of global effects for violence mediated the relationship of violence on depression and suicidal ideation. Poverty level and marital status moderated the relationship between violence and the number of times women seriously considered and actually attempted suicide. Frequent violence was most lethal among the poorest women and marriage provided the least protection for women in the most violent relationships. Specifically, poverty status moderated violence on consideration of suicide for African Americans and Euro-Americans and suicide attempts among Mexican Americans. Marital status moderated partners' violence on suicidal ideation and attempts for Mexican Americans and consideration of suicide for Euro-Americans, but was not a moderator for African Americans' depression or suicidality. Women with different ethnic backgrounds appear to differ in the ways partner violence contributes to their depression and suicidality. Policy implications include the need to offer suicide intervention, particularly for low income women seeking services for violence. Mental health professionals should routinely inquire about partner violence when women present with depression or suicidality. Further, sensitivity to ethnic differences is recommended when confronting women's attributions regarding violence.

Evolutionary theory predicts that sexual coercion and rape are likely to occur in any species in which males are more aggressive, more eager to mate, more sexually assertive, and less discriminating in choosing a mate (Thornhill & Palmer, 2000). McKibbin and Shackelford (2011) state that males of many species have evolved strategies to sexually coerce and rape females. It is for this reason that researchers have speculated that several female traits or behaviors evolved to reduce the risks of being raped (McKibbin & Shackelford, 2011). The rationale behind the proposed experiment examined whether parents’ childrearing practices and women’s plasticity during childhood may have influenced the development of psychological mechanisms in response to the recurrent adaptive problem of rape. Analyses showed that maternal support during childhood predicted how frequently rape-avoidance behaviors were exhibited by women as adults. Analyses also showed that father absence was related to earlier sexual activity but age of menarche did not predict and was not associated with any rape-avoidance behaviors. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-05-14T12:53:51Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Neusa Cavalcante Lima.pdf: 2325157 bytes, checksum: 9f9c7f339921ee0549806ce4890bbcdb (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-14T12:53:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Neusa Cavalcante Lima.pdf: 2325157 bytes, checksum: 9f9c7f339921ee0549806ce4890bbcdb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-09 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This dissertation contributes to the production of knowledge to Social Work. It addresses the social meaning extracted from the narrative of social workers who, before the academic formation, lived the experience of having been attended in a program or a project, in which their profession was inserted. Specific objectives were determined: to analyze the Social Work practice by the meaning attributed to the experiences lived as users or recipients of the professional activity; to identify in the narratives how their profession is expressed and what mediations were mobilized by the professionals in the work accomplished and how the meaning of lived experience guides the professional activity and returns to the construction of new meanings for the profession. The framework adopted for this work found support in historical materialism, in the history philosophy, concept proposed by Walter Benjamin and in the experience approaching by Edward P. Thompson. The research revealed the thomposian approach, present in the theoretical fundaments in Social Work from the end of the 1980s, and that gained visibility after the publication of "Subaltern classes and social assistance" by Yazbek in 1993. The oral history methodology was adopted and found support in Alessandro Portelli, Yara Aun Khoury and in Maria Lúcia Martinelli’s professional activity concerning Social work. The methodological option was based on oral history and, according to the density of the narratives, revealed similarities with the history of life. In the interviews, the emerged categories of analysis were domestic violence against women and the institutional reception, linked to the specific contexts of care in Social Work. In the analysis of the narratives, the professional culture emerged as part of their world experience and as new possibilities of sociability / Esta tese insere-se no campo da produção do conhecimento sobre o Serviço Social. Aborda seu significado social, a partir da narrativa de assistentes sociais que, antes da formação acadêmica, viveram a experiência de terem sido atendidas em programa, ou projeto, no qual a profissão encontrava-se inserida. Como objetivos específicos, foram determinados: Analisar o Serviço Social pelo significado atribuído às experiências vividas como usuárias ou destinatárias da atividade profissional; Identificar a forma em que a profissão se expressa nas narrativas das participantes; Identificar nas narrativas quais foram as mediações mobilizadas pelas profissionais no processo de realização do trabalho; e Conhecer como o significado da experiência vivida orienta o exercício profissional e retorna para a construção de novos significados para a profissão. A tese teve por referencial o materialismo histórico, pela filosofia da história de Walter Benjamin e pela categoria experiência na abordagem de Edward P. Thompson. A metodologia da história oral foi adotada conforme é trabalhada por Alessandro Portelli e Yara Aun Khoury, e na leitura para o Serviço Social realizada por Maria Lúcia Martinelli. Foi possível conhecer as experiências das participantes, por meio das narrativas, entendidas como expressão de muitos sujeitos, o que movimenta a apreensão da história das histórias. Ainda que a opção metodológica tenha sido a história oral temática, pela densidade do processo de entrevista, houve interface com a história de vida. No processo de escuta, emergiram como categorias de análise a violência doméstica contra a mulher e o acolhimento institucional, vinculadas aos contextos específicos de atendimento no Serviço Social. Na análise das narrativas, a categoria cultura profissional emergiu como conteúdo e possibilidade de produção de nova sociabilidade

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-06-15T12:33:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Léa Gomes da Cruz Soares.pdf: 1752433 bytes, checksum: 1ca512806f38bd32a9ae0d089d9e650c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-15T12:33:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Léa Gomes da Cruz Soares.pdf: 1752433 bytes, checksum: 1ca512806f38bd32a9ae0d089d9e650c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-13 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The present dissertation has as an object of study the women, trans women and transvestites in the situation of violence in the city of Santo André: coping strategy. It consists of the foundations of dialectical historical materialism and the feminist foundations, will be held an interlocution with the poststructuralist theory of gender, sexual diversity, itself. Being that studying the issue of women and the LGBT population, especially transgender women and transvestites in the situation of violence, implies directly the denial of rights since it does not have their needs met. The general objective of this research will be to verify the reasons that distance women from domestic violence, Trans Women, and Transvestites from the world of work. Its specific objective is to characterize Gender, Work, Violence and social movement; identify and characterize Women in Situation of Domestic Violence, Trans Women, and transvestites and map out existing services. The methodological procedures in the research will have as a proposal to work the descriptive and qualitative method will use semi-structured interviews. In order to present the relations between everyday life and gender relations, this reflection will be developed from referenced concepts, in relation to the issues raised in our daily practice, since we directly serve women and Trans women and transvestites in a situation of violence, in a context of struggles and confrontations / A presente dissertação tem como objeto de estudo as mulheres, mulheres trans e travestis em situação de violência na cidade de Santo André: estratégia de enfrentamento. Consiste nos fundamentos do materialismo histórico dialético e nos fundamentos feministas, será realizada uma interlocução com a teoria “pósestruturalista”, discussão de gênero, de diversidade sexual, para atender as necessidades do próprio objeto. Sendo que estudar a questão da mulher e a população LGBT, em especial as mulheres trans e as travestis em situação de violência, implica diretamente na negação dos seus direitos, uma vez que não têm suas necessidades atendidas. O objetivo geral dessa pesquisa será verificar os motivos que distanciam as mulheres em situação de violência doméstica, as Mulheres Trans e as Travestis do mundo do trabalho. Tem como objetivo específico: caracterizar Gênero, Trabalho, Violência e Movimento Social; identificar e caracterizar as Mulheres em Situação de Violência Doméstica, as Mulheres Trans e as travestis e mapear os serviços existentes. Os procedimentos metodológicos na pesquisa terão como proposta trabalhar o método descritivo e qualitativo, utilizando entrevistas semiestruturadas. Com o objetivo de apresentar as relações entre a cotidianidade e as relações de gênero, essa reflexão será desenvolvida a partir de conceitos referenciados, no tocante às questões rebatidas em nosso cotidiano da prática, uma vez que atendemos diretamente as mulheres e as mulheres trans e as travestis em situação de violência, num contexto de lutas e enfrentamentos

Ovid’s interest in women and their lives is apparent throughout his texts, but is especially so in the Metamorphoses. This study analyses the violation and violence of women in the Roman poet’s epic and sets out to uncover the governing social mores and values that perhaps shaped the representations of women in the text. It examines how Ovid’s narratives may betray his values and attitudes and those of his audience as well as looking at the various ways that the poet and his rape episodes have been read. After surveying the literature on rape in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Ars Amatoria and the Fasti, a brief historical context for the Metamorphoses is provided; women’s lives in Rome, the rape laws that existed during this time, as well as Roman sexuality are then examined. After this, a close textual analysis of different rape episodes in the Metamorphoses is presented, including the episodes of nymphs as victims, the silencing of rape victims and sexually ‘aggressive’ women, in order to reveal and examine the patterns that emerge. While Ovid’s intentions and attitudes towards women, as they are found in the Metamorphoses, have been read by some as sympathetic, by others as misogynistic and still others as more neutral, it is concluded that, although there is space for various readings, as a poet, Ovid was ‘opportunistic’ in his choice of materia and, above all, he wished to stimulate and delight his audience. While his personal values may not necessarily be reflected in his works and his readers may never know the ‘true’ intentions behind the poem, the Metamorphoses does hold up a mirror to the negative treatment of women and exposes the gender inequalities that existed during Ovid’s time. As a poet, however, Ovid’s conceived role is to entertain his audience and despite his somewhat problematic treatment of women and rape victims, he does just that.