Intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV) is a serious and prevalent form of violence against women. Yet, it has been neglected in research, policy and practice. In particular, the complex dynamics of IPSV are poorly understood, and qualitative research is lacking. This paper explores women’s emotional responses and coping strategies in the context of IPSV, using the sociological concept of “emotion work” to make sense of their experiences. Emotion work refers to the emotional labour undertaken by individuals to try and shape their own and others’ emotional responses. It can take the form of “deep acting” where the individual convinces themselves that an emotional response is authentic, or “surface acting” which is more performative. In-depth, unstructured interviews with survivors were utilized to explore their lived experiences of IPSV. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to develop key themes. Three main themes were developed: 1) “Trying to make things work in the bedroom”, describes the deep acting women undertook to convince themselves that their own sexual deficiencies were to blame for the abuse. It also highlights the emotion work of protecting their partner’s feelings; 2) “Faking pleasure, minimizing worries” demonstrates how women began to acknowledge, but still minimized the abuse (deep acting) and faked pleasure as a safety strategy (surface acting); 3) “Protecting myself from the worst of it” primarily explores the deep acting undertaken to emotionally detach themselves from the inevitable sexual abuse. These themes demonstrate shifts in women’s emotion work over time, corresponding to their level of awareness of the abuse. Emotion work is undertaken largely as a protective or coping mechanism for women experiencing IPSV, however, it can also function as a barrier to awareness. This has important implications for practitioners working with victim/survivors.

亲密伴侣性暴力（IPSV）是对妇女的一种严重且普遍的暴力形式。然而，它在研究，政策和实践中被忽略了。尤其是，人们对IPSV的复杂动态知之甚少，并且缺乏定性研究。本文利用“情感工作”的社会学概念来理解妇女在IPSV背景下的情感反应和应对策略。情感工作是指个人为了尝试塑造自己和他人的情感反应而进行的情感工作。它可以采取“深层表演”的形式，即个人说服自己情感反应是真实的，或者以“表面表演”的形式表现出来。对幸存者进行了深入的，非结构化的采访，以探索他们在IPSV中的生活经历。反思性主题分析用于制定关键主题。提出了三个主要主题：1）“试图使事情在卧室中发挥作用”，描述了表现深刻的女性说服自己，认为自己的性缺陷是虐待的罪魁祸首。它还强调了保护伴侣情感的情感工作；2）“以愉悦为乐，将忧虑降到最低”表明妇女是如何开始承认的，但仍将虐待（纵深行事）和假冒愉悦作为一种安全策略（浮出水面）降到了最低；3）“保护自己免受最坏的影响”主要探讨了采取深切的行动来使自己摆脱不可避免的性虐待。这些主题表明妇女的情感工作随着时间的推移而发生变化，这与她们对虐待的认识程度相对应。开展情感工作主要是为遭受IPSV的妇女提供的一种保护或应对机制，但是，它也可能会阻碍人们提高认识。这对与受害者/幸存者一起工作的从业者具有重要意义。