Ser mulher, violência de gênero e uso abusivo de álcool e outras drogas

Abstract

The aim of this work is to shed light on the relationship between gender-based violence against women and the abusive use of alcohol and other drugs. To this end, the research, which is bibliographic and qualitative in nature, was based on Marx’s method—the historical-dialectical materialist method. In the first chapter, the use of psychoactive substances is defined as a socially determined practice, "especially related to the system of needs," based on Lukács' social ontology; prohibitionism and the war on drugs are presented as products of Brazilian social formation and its colonial and slave-owning character. In the second chapter, drawing from the "unitary theory," it is argued that gender oppression remains present in capitalist social relations, though not as an independent system. In the third and final chapter, the profile of women who abuse psychoactive substances in Brazil is outlined—mostly Black and poor women—and it is concluded that there is a direct relationship between gender-based violence against women and the abusive use of alcohol and other drugs, as a way to alleviate the intense psychological suffering resulting from various violent experiences.