4 The Continuum of Sexual

Violence
Liz Kelly

This chapter discusses the application of the concept of the continuum

of sexual violence to research on, and discussion of, the issue of sexual
violence. Two of the original aims of the research were to explore the
links between the different forms of sexual violence and to investigate
the idea, which arose whilst working in a refuge for battered women,
that most women have experience of sexual violence in their lifetime. 1
Whilst analysing the in-depth interviews carried out with women, I begin
to use the concept of a continuum of sexual violence to describe the findings
in the two areas.

METHODOLOGY

The research data consists of in-depth interviews with sixty women and
follow-up interviews with forty-eight after they read a transcript of
their original interview. The first interview covered childhood,
adolescence and adulthood, in order that experiences of sexual
violence were discussed within the context of each woman's life. Every
woman was asked if she had experienced any of a number of forms of
sexual violence, and each self-defined experience of rape, incest or
domestic violence and its effects was discussed in depth. The follow-up
interview was included to assess the effect of the first interview on the
women. It also functioned as an internal validity test, enabling further
discussion of areas that were unclear in the original interview. It also
resulted in the recording of incidents of sexual violence which the
women forgot to mention initially, remembered between the two interviews
or decided to divulge as a result of the first interview.
Women volunteered to take part in the project. It was considered
crucial that the women chose to discuss, in depth, what might well have
been distressing memories. Moreover, one of the research aims was to
interview a wider spectrum of women than merely those who could be
contacted through official agencies (the police, courts, social services,
therapists), or voluntary agencies (refuges for battered women, rape

46
J. Hanmer et al. (eds.), Women, Violence and Social Control
© British Sociological Association 1987
 Liz Kelly 47

crisis centres, self-help groups). Much of the available research to date

has drawn samples only from such sources. Given the suggestion that
the incidence of sexual violence is underestimated in official statistics
and in victimisation studies (the recent British Crime Survey
documented only one case of attempted rape from interviews in 11 000
households), it is important to reach women who do not officially
report their experiences. A number of methods were used to contact
women including letters and articles in newspapers and magazines and
a local radio appearance. The most successful method of contact was
through talks given to a wide range of local community women's
groups and students.
Given the research aims it was essential that the various forms of
sexual violence were adequately covered within the interviews. The
sample was, therefore, split into two groups of thirty. Initially, women
were asked to volunteer only if they had experienced rape, incest or
domestic violence (samples of ten were selected for each type of
assault). When these samples were nearly complete, women were
asked to volunteer irrespective of any particular experience (this
produced a further group of thirty).
The sample consisted predominantly of white women, with only two
non-white women, both of mixed race. The sample was varied in other
respects, however. It included women from different socio-economic
backgrounds with varied experiences of employment and who had
made different decisions regarding marriage, motherhood and
sexuality. The proportion of women in the sample who had been or
were at that time still in further education was higher than within the
population generally, although a number of these women came from
working-class backgrounds and/or went into further education as
mature students. Whilst not representative, the sample drew on the
experience of a group of predominantly white women seldom recorded
in other research: those who do not report their experiences to welfare
agencies, women from middle-class backgrounds, and women holding
professional jobs.

THE CONCEPT OF A CONTINUUM

As the interviews were transcribed and analysed it became clear that

most women had experienced sexual violence in their lives. It was also
clear that there was a range of possible experiences within each form of
sexual violence discussed in the interviews. It was in response to these
48 The Continuum of Sexual Violence

findings that I began to use the term 'continuum' to describe the extent
and range of sexual violence in women's lives. The concept was used in
a number of talks given to a variety of women's groups (some were
feminist groups involved in work around male violence, some were
local community groups). Many of the women present found it helpful
in understanding their own experiences and sexual violence generally.
Women in these groups found the common-sense meaning of the
word 'continuum' useful, and it is this meaning which is intended here.
The Oxford English Dictionary provides two meanings which were
used: 'a basic common character that underlies many different events'
and 'a continuous series of elements or events that pass into one
another and cannot readily be distinguished'. The first meaning
enables discussion of sexual violence in a general sense: the basic
common character underlying the many different events is that men
use a variety of forms of abuse, coercion and force in order to control
women. The second meaning enables documenting and naming the
range of abuse, coercion and force that women experience. At the
talks given, women used this second meaning to locate their own
particular experiences within the category of sexual violence. This
meaning also allows for the fact that there are no clearly defined and
discrete analytic categories into which women's experiences can be
placed. The experiences women have and how they are subjectively
defined shade into and out of a given category such as sexual
harassment, which includes looks, gestures and remarks as well as acts
which may be defined as assault or rape.
In both senses, the concept is intended to highlight the fact that
sexual violence exists in most women's lives, whilst the form it takes,
how women define events (Kelly, 1984a) and its impact on them at the
time and over time (Kelly, 1984b) varies. The meaning of continuum,
as used in this chapter, does not refer to the meaning common in social
science which involves the application of statistical measurement to
clearly defined, discrete categories. The concept should not be seen,
therefore, as a linear straight line connecting the different events or
experiences. There are a number of dimensions which affect the
meaning for, and impact on, women of experiences of sexual violence
at the time they happened and later in time. Amongst these are the
particular nature of the assault, the relationship between the man and
the woman or girl, whether the assault was a single incident or part of
ongoing abuse, the extent of threat perceived by the woman at the time
and the context of the assault for the woman, including how she
 Liz Kelly 49

defined the man's behaviour and whether it connected to previous

experiences.
Nor should the term continuum be interpreted as a statement about
seriousness either at the time or over time. Marie Leidig (1981), the
only other writer to suggest using the concept of a continuum in
relation to sexual violence, uses seriousness as the basis of her analysis.
She argues that those forms of violence which she places at the extreme
end of her continuum- domestic violence and incest- are necessarily
more serious and, therefore, have greater negative effects. But the
impact of sexual violence on women is a complex matter. With the
important exception of incidents of sexual violence which result in
death, the effects on women cannot be read off simplistically from the
form of sexual violence women experience. How women react to and
define their experiences at the time and how they cope with them over
time differs and a complex range of factors affect the impact of
particular experiences. The testimony of previously-battered women
(Dobash and Dobash, 1979; Pagelow, 1981; Schecter, 1982) about the
effects of mentaVemotional violence, and the finding by McNeill (see
Chapter 7) that what women fear most when they are flashed at is
death, suggest that creating a hierarchy of abuse based on seriousness
is inappropriate.
Such a perspective necessarily requires making judgements about
what is more serious and what are greater negative effects. It would be
equally possible to argue (although this argument is not used here),
that forms of sexual violence, such as the threat of rape and street
harassment, which most women experience and which have the effect
of limiting women's access to and freedom within public space, are
more serious than, say, domestic violence, which fewer women
experience.
My perspective is that all forms of sexual violence are serious and have
effects: the 'more or less' aspect of the continuum refers only to incidence.
There are forms of sexual violence experienced by most women in their
lives, which are also more likely to be experienced on multiple occasions.
These more common forms are also more likely to be defined by men as
acceptable behaviour, for example seeing sexual harassment as 'a bit of
fun' or 'only a joke', and they are less likely to be defined as crimes within
the law.
50 The Continuum of Sexual Violence

HOW THE CONCEPT CAN BE USED

Several researchers investigating rape have used the idea, if not the
actual concept, of a continuum linking rape to heterosexual sex
(Russell, 1975; Vogelman, 1979; Williams and Holmes, 1981;
Wilson, 1978). Gilbert and Webster (1982) are representative of this
approach:

Many rapes merely extend traditional heterosexual exchanges, in which

masculine pursuit and feminine reticence are familiar and formalized.
Although rape is a gross exaggeration of gender power, it contains the
rules and rituals of heterosexual encounter, seduction and
conquest. (p. 114)

Clark and Lewis (1977), and Marolla and Scully (1979) explicitly use
the term in discussing rapists:

At one end of the continuum is the man who makes no attempt to

disguise his behaviour ... At the other end of the continuum is the
rapist who will try to avoid seeing his actions as rape. (Clark and
Lewis, p. 101)
It is equally relevant to ask if, rather than a distortion, rapists may not
represent one end of a quasi-social sanctioned continuum of male sexual
aggression. (Marolla and Scully, p. 316)

Herman (1981) also explicitly uses the word, defining incest as:

only the farthest point on a continuum - an exaggeration of patriarchal

family norms, not a departure from them. (p. 110)

In each case, these writers are linking specific forms of sexual violence
to more common, everyday aspects of male behaviour. However,
whilst several researchers have used the term 'continuum', it appears
as a descriptive word rather than a developed concept. The underlying
analysis is often implicit and the importance of developing the idea in
relation to all forms of sexual violence is not drawn out.
Feminist theory is increasingly linking a critique of heterosexuality,
as currently constructed, with discussion of male violence (see, for
example, Rich, 1980). Many discussions of rape suggest that force and
coercion are often present in heterosexual encounters (Clark and
Lewis, 1977; MacKinnon, 1982). Other writers illustrate how aspects
 Liz Kelly 51

of domestic violence (Schecter, 1982), incest (Herman, 1981; Ward,

1984) and sexual harassment (Farley, 1978) link to more commonplace
interactions between men and women/girls. The concept of a
continuum of sexual violence enables this theoretical analysis to be
applied to empirical data and to women's own experiences.
Most previous research concentrated on particular forms of sexual
violence, such as rape or domestic violence. The samples often include
only women who had defined their experience in terms of the
particular form of sexual violence in question. Koss and Oros (1982),
discussing research on rape, suggest that this has resulted in a
concentration within research on the extremes of sexual violence.
They note the need for research which explores the range of sexual
violence, including verbal coercion and the threat of violence,
alongside the use of physical force. The concept of the continuum of
sexual violence draws attention to this wider range of forms of abuse
and assault which women experience, illustrating further the link
between more common, everyday male behaviour and what Koss and
Oros term the 'extremes'. Several questions in this research project
were designed to investigate everyday forms of abuse and the
following quote from a follow-up interview shows how invisible this
may be to women themselves:

You asked me if I knew women who had these experiences. Talking

about it afterwards there were a surprising number who had been
sexually harassed - none who had been raped. I do feel that's really
invisible. We don't say someone flashed at me last night or-so it seemed
that it's happened to so many women but it's not recognized.

Stanko (1985) offers a possible explanation for this non-recognition:

Women's experiences of male violence are filtered through an

understanding of men's behaviour which is characterised as either
typical or aberrant ... In abstract we easily draw lines between those
aberrant (thus harmful), and those typical (thus unharmful) types of
male behaviour. We even label the aberrant behaviour as potentially
criminal behaviour ... Women who feel violated or intimidated by
typical male behaviour have no way of specifying how or why typical
male behaviour feels like aberrant male behaviour. (p. 10)

The concept of the continuum of sexual violence enables women to specify

the links between typical and aberrant behaviour and therefore enables
women to locate and name their own experiences.
52 The Continuum of Sexual Violence

The following two sections use data from the research interviews to
illustrate how the continuum of sexual violence can be used in relation
to incidence and experience. It is important to note that these two
aspects interconnect. When analysing the range of experience within
each particular form of sexual violence the incidence 6f experiences
which are closer to everyday male behaviour is more common. The
continuum of incidence applies within the continuum of experience.

THE CONTINUUM OF INCIDENCE

In viewing sexual violence as a continuum and widening the range of

possible forms of abuse women may experience, research on incidence
becomes both a wider and a more complex area of investigation.
Additional questions must be asked which add to the range of possible
experiences and yet do not presume a shared definition of forms of
sexual violence. The existence of a continuum of events which are not
easily distinguishable implies that women may not share the same
definition of a particular incident. In this project, a number of
questions were included in order to explore the more hidden aspects of
women's experience. For example, women were asked if they ever felt
pressured to have sex, if they picked up sexual messages in the family,
and if they remembered any negative sexual experiences as a child. In
response to these questions many women recalled experiences of
abuse that they would not have considered relevant if questions had
been limited to rape or incest (see also Russell, 1985, for a detailed
discussion in relation to her incidence study).
In order to analyse the interviews, it was necessary to apply analytic
concepts to the women's experiences. The definitions used by the
women have been reflected as accurately as possible, however. 2 Table
4.1 presents the incidence of experiences of sexual violence in the lives
of the sixty women interviewed.
The continuum of incidence is shown in this table, which moves from
experiences which were most common in women's lives to those which
were least common. The particular placing of forms of sexual violence
in this table is intended only to reflect the experiences of the sixty
women interviewed and it is not suggested that this pattern is generally
applicable. I suspect, however, that the most common forms in
this table would be similarly placed if this analysis were to be applied in
other research projects. It is also important to note that aspects of
sexual violence which most women experience are not reflected in· this
 Liz Kelly 53

Table 4.1 Women's experiences of sexual violence

Form of violence Number of women Percentage of sample

Sexual harassment 56 93
Sexual assault 54 90
Pressure to have sex 50 83
Sexual abuse 43 72
Obscene phone call (37 asked) 25 68
Coercive sex 38 63
Domestic violence• 32 53
Flashing 30 50
Rape• 30 50
Incest* 13 22

* These three categories include those women who initially volunteered to

take part in the research specifically because of their experiences of these types
of violence.

table, particularly the threat of violence and emotionaVpsychological

abuse.
Every woman interviewed was aware of the threat of violence and
most had experienced sexual harassment, sexual assault and pressure
to have sex during their lives. These forms of sexual violence are also
more common in the sense that they were more likely to occur on
multiple occasions. Women were far more likely to comment on the
commonness for them of sexual harassment and pressure to have sex.
Many referred to sexual harassment as something they were coping
with on a daily basis:

It's something that happens so much- you just experience it in the street
all the time, its almost a background of what going out of doors seems to
mean.

Hanmer and Saunders (1984) interviewed 129 women in Leeds. They

found that within the previous year 59 per cent had experienced
'threatening, violent or sexually harassing behaviour'.
Women coped with the common forms of sexual violence in a variety
of ways including ignoring them, not defining them as abusive at the
time and, very commonly, forgetting them. This process was
confirmed by the fact that, whilst typing up the transcripts, both I and
54 The Continuum of Sexual Violence

another woman remembered or redefined a number of

experiences from our own lives which we had either forgotten or
minimised. Incidence, as recorded in the interviews, is therefore likely
to be an underestimate. Further research is needed to investigate the
extent of sexual violence at the more common end of the continuum
and its impact on women's lives.
The continuum of incidence also applied within specific forms of
sexual violence. Only ten women had never experienced violence
within a heterosexual relationship. Thirty-two women defined their
experiences as domestic violence. The major factor influencing this
definition was whether the violence was repeated and occurred over
time. It was also clear that many men used the forms of control
common within domestic violence (emotional outbursts which
included violence to objects, emotional withdrawal, absence,
controlling women's social contacts, questioning women's
performance of household tasks) but did not use physical violence.
This pattern was also clear in relation to incest: more women picked up
sexual messages from fathers than actually experienced father/
daughter incest. On reflection, most women recalled being disturbed
by this behaviour, but it was difficult both at the time and over time to
explain why. Again, the patterns of control recalled by women who
were sexually abused by their fathers were experienced by other
women who were not sexually abused. These patterns clearly illustrate
that more common patterns of male control are linked to behaviours
that are defined as criminal by the legal system.

THE CONTINUUM OF EXPERIENCE - HETEROSEXUAL

SEX TO RAPE

This section illustrates that women's experiences of heterosexual sex

are not either consenting or rape, but exist on a continuum moving
from choice to pressure to coercion to force. The illustrations from the
interviews clearly show how the categories I have used to record
women's experiences, pressure to have sex, coercive sex and rape,
shade into one another. This point is relevant to recent discussions of
pleasure and danger as two opposing frameworks within which
women's experiences of sex are conceptualised by feminists (see, for
example, DuBois and Gordon, 1983). The concept of a continuum
suggests that pleasure and danger are not mutually exclusive opposites
 Liz Kelly 55

but the desirable and undesirable ends, respectively, of a continuum of

experience.
Dworkin (1983) and MacKinnon (1982) have argued that one of the
key problems in 'proving' rape in a court of law is that forced or
coerced sex are common experiences for women. Both challenge the
assumption that all sexual intercourse that is not defined as rape is,
therefore, consensual. Responding to Dworkin's argument, Bart
(1983) suggests conceiving of heterosexual sex as a continuum which
moves from consensual sex (equally desired by woman and man), to
altruistic sex (women do it because they feel sorry for the man or guilty
about saying no), to compliant sex (the consequences of not doing it
are worse than the consequences of doing it), to rape. This is similar to
the continuum of heterosexual sex developed in this project in order to
reflect the ways women define their own experiences. Bart's 'altruistic'
and 'compliant' sex would be equivalent to the category 'pressure to
have sex'. 'Coercive sex' is the term used in this research to cover
experiences women interviewed described as being 'like rape'.
Evidence from the interviews demonstrates the validity of this
approach. Data is drawn from answers to a number of interview
questions- in particular, whether women found it easy or difficult to
say no to sex, whether they had ever felt pressured to have sex, and
whether they had ever been raped. 3
One group of women recalled that saying no to sex had been a
problem in the past, but described how they developed a belief in their
right to say no and a commitment to themselves only to have sex when
they desired it. This was not an easy process for any of these women. In
this group, women currently involved in a heterosexual relationship
were more likely to feel sex was consensual:

I think this is probably the first sexual experience where I've felt equal
and I haven't felt used because I've definitely said no ifl haven't wanted
to.

A larger group of women felt that saying no, particularly in an ongoing

relationship, was not something they found easy to do. Many of these
women referred to occasions when they had sex when it was not what
they wanted. They clearly felt that they owed sex to their partners
regardless of their own feelings. Aspects of this group's current
heterosexual relationships fit Bart's altruistic sex. This quote, whilst
retrospective, refered to a relationship that had just ended:
56 The Continuum of Sexual Violence

When I was living with Mark I'd come home from work and J'd be
shattered and I'd just want to go to bed and sleep, and he'd start
cuddling up and touching me and I'd think 'oh here we go again'. It was
like a duty, that was sort of paying the rent- I had a roof over my head
and that was what I was expected to pay.

A number of women discussed altruistic sex within long-term

relationships. They felt guilty refusing sex on a long-term basis, even
where sex gave them little pleasure and made them feel used:

I think he preferred to be satisfied rather than satisfy me. It did have an

effect on me for a long time afterwards.

Most women's initial response to the question 'Have you ever felt
pressured to have sex when you dido 't want to?' was to say that this had
happened but that physical force was not used. The presence of
physical coercion clearly made it easier for women to define their
experience as abusive. Bart's compliant category applied to
experiences woman discussed where sex was the price for improving
the situation or preventing men becoming unpleasant:

Generally in relationships I've felt that I've had to do it to save myself

the trouble of persuading him not to want it. I mean I would do it
because it was easier than spending a whole day with him sulking about
it.

The above quote, and the one which follows, are examples of the
responses many women made to this question. They felt pressure to
have sex in many, if not all, of their sexual relationships with men:

I felt pressured to have sex by nearly everybody I met at university -

apart from one who did actually ask - I felt pressured by the bloke I was
engaged to, I just felt obliged to have sex with him.

Pressurised sex seemed to cover sitw.dons in which women chose not

to say no, but in which they were not freely consenting.
The term coercive sex covers experiences of forced sex which
women discussed either in response to the question about pressure to
have sex or the question about rape. The responses were more likely to
refer to particular experiences in which there was explicit pressure from
the man, often including the threat of or some physical force. Women's
 Liz Kelly 57

consent was overtly coerced. At the time of the interviews, women did
not define these experiences as rape:

I couldn't call that rape ... I mean there was that one bad case of it, he's
forced sex on me a number of times, that's what I would call a woman
being taken for granted.
We'd had a row and I'd gone to sleep in the other room and he came in
and got me by the arm and he dragged me into the bedroom and said
'you will remember this when you're old- meaning I will remember this
wonderful sexy scene where this guy is showing me his wonderful
masculine strength and desire and passion - I wasn't turned on by it at
all.

Women also gave examples of feeling coerced in relation to specific

sexual practices:

I'm not a women's libber but I thought it was time I started to go out as
he was out every night. He objected strongly, to put it mildly, put my
clothes in the sink, put a dirty poker over my face so I couldn't go out.
The only way I could get out in the end was to have some kind of sex,
usually oral, before I went out.

One of the ways in which the concept of the continuum is useful is that
it can allow for definitions of experiences to change over time. The
following quotes illustrate how, in retrospect, women made explicit
links between pressurised or coerced sex and rape:

I didn't say to him that I didn't want to, I didn't dare to (pauses] you
know you don't want to, but you are still doing it. That's why in my eyes
now it's rape with consent. It's rape because it's pressurized but you do it
because you feel you can't say no, for whatever reason.
Where do you define rape? The pressure to have sex was overwhelming
... I was made to feel guilty. It isn't rape but incredible emotional
pressure was put on and I wanted that man out of my room as soon as
possible.
No not rape not in the [sighs] ... not actually physically forced to have
sex, only ... coerced I think yes.
She added later in the interview:
I remember an occasion where he wouldn't let me get up, and he was
very strong. He pulled my arms above my head, I didn't put up much of a
58 The Continuum of Sexual Violence

struggle. I mean I wouldn't have seen that as rape because I associated

rape with strangers, dark, night and struggle. I didn't put up much of a
struggle, but I didn't want to, so in a sense that was rape, yes.

Many of the experiences women defined as rape are similar to those

included in the 'coercive sex' category. How women subjectively
define experiences of sexual violence at the time and over time is too
complex a topic to discuss adequately in this chapter (see Kelly, 1984a,
for a more detailed discussion). The factors which made defining an
incident as rape more likely included that the rapist was a stranger, that
the assault happened outside and at night, that physical force was used,
and that women resisted. Many of the experiences women defined as
rape were not defined as such by them until some time after the assault.
As the above quotes illustrate several women did not define assaults as
rape until they were interviewed.
The examples demonstrate that many women experience non-
consensual sex which neither they nor the law and, even more unlikely,
the man, define as rape. Women do, however, feel abused by such
experiences and a number of women recalled short-term and long-
term effects that were similar to those experienced by women who
defined their experience as rape at the time. There is no clear
distinction, therefore, between consensual sex and rape, but a
continuum of pressure, threat, coercion and force. The concept of a
continuum validates the sense of abuse women feel when they do not
freely consent to sex and takes account of the fact that women may not
define their experience at the time or over time as rape. It also allows
us to explore how and why women's definitions might change over
time.

CONCLUSIONS

This chapter explored the usefulness of using the concept of a continuum

when researching and discussing sexual violence. Continuum was
defined as a basic common character underlying many different events
and as a continuous series of elements or events that pass into one
another. The common underlying factor is that men use a variety of
methods of abuse, coercion and force to control women. The concept
of a continuum was applied to the incidence of forms of sexual violence
and the range of possible experiences within each form of sexual
 Liz Kelly 59

violence. The continuum should not be seen as a linear connection, nor

can inferences be made from it concerning seriousness or the impact on
women.
Using the concept of a continuum highlights the fact that all women
experience sexual violence at some point in their lives. It enables the
linking of the more common, everyday abuses women experience with
the less common experiences labelled as crimes. It is through this
connection that women are able to locate their own particular
experiences as being examples of sexual violence.
An important implication of this way of viewing sexual violence is
that a clear distinction cannot be made between 'victims' and other
women. The fact that some women only experience violence at the
more common, everyday end of the continuum is a difference in
degree and not in kind. The use of the term 'victim' in order to separate
one group of women from other women's lives and experiences must
be questioned. The same logic applies to the definition of 'offenders'.

REFERENCES

1. The term 'sexual violence' is used as a general term to cover all forms of
abuse, coercion and force that women experience from men. There are
both empirical and theoretical reasons for using this term. When the
interviews were analysed it became clear that it is not possible to make neat
distinctions between physical and sexual violence. Many battered women
are raped or coerced into having sex; many raped or incestuously abused
women and girls also experience physical violence. On a theoretical level
the term draws attention to the fact that it is violence committed by one sex,
men, directed at the other sex, women. It also links to MacKinnon's (1982)
analysis of sexuality as a system of power through which men attempt to
control women.
2. The categories used in this table emerged out of women's own definitions
and data analysis. Sexual harassment covers experiences at work, in the
street, in public places. Pressure to have sex covers experiences where
women felt pressured by the man's behaviour or expectations, but they
chose not to say no. Coercive sex covers experiences women described as
being 'like rape', where their consent was coerced or participation forced.
Sexual abuse covered all forms of sexual violence women experienced
before the age of sixteen which were not already counted in the incest
category. Sexual assault contains experiences of sexual violence after the
age of sixteen not already counted in other categories; a number of
attempted rapes are included in this figure. Rape, domestic violence and
incest, flashing and obscene phone calls contain experiences women
defined as such.
60 The Continuum of Sexual Violence

3. A number of women were lesbians and/or celibate at the time of the

interview. However, they all had had heterosexual relationships in the past
and were asked to discuss these in response to the question about saying
no to sex.