Invalidation and gendered violence across the lifespan

This article proposes that invalidation is a pervasive manifestation of gender relations as they are expressed through strategies of minimisation, disbelief and denial. Invalidation is embedded within interpersonal and institutionalised arrangements and interactions. It is a constitute element of gendered violence as well as a socio-political condition that enables gendered violence. Invalidation serves to inscribe gender relations upon the bodies of women through the mental and physical health deficits of the gendered violence that it enables and facilitates, as well as through the denial of testimonial legitimacy and the consequent withholding of resources, support and services.