Research shows that political economy—the structural distribution of a society’s economic resources as shaped by power inequalities—is linked to the incidence of domestic abuse as well as survivors’ success in escaping abusive relationships. Yet studies often overlook the extent to which domestic abuse in the global South is embedded in neocolonial structural violence. Drawing on interviews and surveys with urban poor women in Metro Manila, I explore how structural adjustment and state violence from the 1980s to the 2000s have inextricably shaped experiences of domestic abuse. Popular discourse and some gender scholars portray economic globalization as an empowering, even liberatory force for poor women in the global South. Instead, I trace how a political economy marked by what I call “neoliberal imperialism” has fueled domestic violence, not by boosting the upward economic mobility of urban poor Filipinas but by worsening their gendered precarity. I complicate feminist scholarship that has framed increased abuse as a male backlash against heightened female mobility. Gendered material inequalities, austerity, and militarization have serially exposed women and girls to cycles of violence. These facets of a neocolonial political economy collude to reinforce low-income Filipinas’ primary responsibility for reproductive labor, trapping them in abusive relationships despite access to cash earnings. I argue that imperialist extraction not only exacerbates domestic abuse but that interpersonal gendered violence is a tool for harnessing Filipina reproductive labor to reproduce empire. I critique carceral feminist responses to abuse in a neocolonial context, considering how urban poor Filipinas’ oppositional consciousnesses gesture toward structural alternatives.

中文翻译：

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论美国帝国的亲密接触：马尼拉大都会的新自由主义帝国主义和家庭虐待

研究表明，政治经济学——由权力不平等塑造的社会经济资源的结构性分配——与家庭虐待的发生率以及幸存者成功摆脱虐待关系有关。然而，研究往往忽视了全球南方的家庭虐待在多大程度上嵌入了新殖民主义的结构性暴力之中。通过对马尼拉大都会城市贫困妇女的采访和调查，我探讨了从 1980 年代到 2000 年代的结构调整和国家暴力如何不可避免地塑造了家庭虐待的经历。流行的话语和一些性别学者将经济全球化描述为全球南方贫困妇女的赋权甚至解放力量。相反，我追溯了以我所谓的“新自由主义帝国主义”为标志的政治经济如何助长了家庭暴力，不是通过促进城市贫困菲律宾人的向上经济流动性，而是通过加剧他们的性别不稳定。我将女权主义学术研究复杂化了，该学术研究将更多的虐待视为男性对女性流动性提高的强烈反对。性别物质不平等、紧缩政策和军事化使妇女和女孩连续暴露于暴力循环之中。新殖民主义政治经济的这些方面相互勾结，强化了低收入菲律宾人对再生产劳动的主要责任，尽管可以获得现金收入，但仍将他们困在虐待关系中。我认为，帝国主义攫取不仅加剧了家庭虐待，而且人际性别暴力是利用菲律宾再生产劳动来复制帝国的工具。我批评监狱女权主义者在新殖民主义背景下对虐待的反应，