Dianne Lalonde
Researcher; Knowledge Mobilizer; PhD Candidate, Western University
In collaboration with communities, I conduct trauma-informed research and knowledge mobilization on technology-facilitated violence, coercive control, trauma-informed approaches, and political advocacy to end gender-based violence.
Media
Online harms need a gender-based analysis
Policy Options, June 7, 2024Online
URL: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/june-2024/deepfake-sexual-abuse/
As Parliament moves ahead with its study of legislation to offer better protection from online harms, Bill C-63 contains some glaring gaps that risk leaving women and girls in Canada unfairly exposed. Technology-facilitated violence that Canadians have been increasingly experiencing does not impact everyone in the same way and at the same rates. Developing effective legislation to prevent and address online harms requires gender-based analysis. To understand why, I explore one emerging form of online abuse: non-consensual sexual deepfakes.
Cyberflashing is a form of gendered sexual violence that must be taken seriously
The Conversation Canada, May 26, 2024Online
Cyberflashing is often normalized and perceived as something to laugh off, but it is a form of gender-based sexual violence that must be taken seriously. My research on technology-facilitated gender-based violence highlights the need for legal and societal responses to these emerging challenges.
When doctors cite 'regret' to deny care, who is really protected?
WIRED, March 24, 2022Online
URL: https://www.wired.com/story/regret-medicine-decisions-healthcare/
Physicians are refusing patients treatment today because of how they might feel tomorrow, jeopardizing essential services for trans youth and women.
Sexist barriers block women’s choice to be sterilized
The Conversation Canada, August 14, 2018Online
URL: https://theconversation.com/sexist-barriers-block-womens-choice-to-be-sterilized-99754
The decision to have children, to not have children or to render oneself unable to have children, has potentially life-changing consequences. However, it is only in the case of women seeking sterilization that regret is seen as a strong reason for denying reproductive choice.
Ringing an Early Alarm Bell: Image-Based Sexual Violence against Political Actors
by Dianne Lalonde
Published by University of Toronto Press
April 1, 2024
Politically active individuals have been targeted in the non-consensual creation and distribution of intimate content in a phenomenon known as image-based sexual violence (IBSV). In some cases, private sexual images are shared online by a former intimate partner. In other cases, perpetrators take publicly available material to produce fake sexual images and videos through artificial intelligence (known as non-consensual sexual deepfakes).
In order to raise awareness and enhance our understanding of gender-based violence in politics, this chapter uses an intersectional anti-oppression lens to explore IBSV as a tactic to control and intimidate political actors in the Canadian context. It shares how IBSV disproportionately targets women and marginalized groups, in addition to the gendered and intersectional impacts of IBSV in politics. Finally, this chapter makes a case as to why recognizing IBSV is an urgent need in Canadian politics to end violence, empower oppressed groups, and strengthen Canadian democracy.
URL: https://utorontopress.com/9781487540012/gender-based-violence-in-canadian-politics-in-the-metoo-era/
Does Cultural Appropriation Cause Harm?
by Dianne Lalonde
Published by Politics, Groups, and Identities
Cultural appropriation is often called a buzzword and dismissed as a concept for serious engagement. Political theory, in particular, has been largely silent about cultural appropriation. Such silence is strange considering that cultural appropriation is clearly linked to key concepts in political theory such as culture, recognition, and redistribution. In this paper, I utilize political theory to advance a harm-based account of cultural appropriation. I argue that there are three potential harms with cultural appropriation: (1) nonrecognition, (2) misrecognition, and (3) exploitation. Discerning whether these harms are present or absent offers a means of placing specific instances of cultural appropriation on a spectrum of harmfulness. I conclude by considering how cultural appropriation, and associated appropriative harms, may be avoided.
URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21565503.2019.1674160
Biography
I am actively involved in research and knowledge mobilization related to gender-based violence (GBV) and gender equity. Previously, I spent 7 years working with the Learning Network at the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children (CREVAWC) at Western University. The Learning Network bridges the gap between current GBV research, practice-based knowledge, and lived experiences to enhance capacity to prevent violence, support survivors, and promote gender equity. I am currently a PhD Candidate (ABD) in Political Science at Western University.