GWSS3002: Gender Race and Class: Women's Lives in the United States

Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse

2009-12-19T05:41:47Z

These two areas are very closely related. Sexual abuse is a form of domestic violence and often occurs with what most people think of as domestic violence (physical abuse). I believe that the most important connection between the two is that sexual abuse has to do with power, not sex. We talked about this a little bit in class and I think it's important to note because many people believe that a rapist or child molester has some kind of sexual disorder; that they have these sexual urges that they try to fulfill by preying on vulnerable individuals. The reality is that most rapists do not even orgasm because of the lack of sexual pleasure involved.

The other connection between the two is that they both affect all kinds of people, across all lines of race, class, gender, sexuality, location etc. There is no way to identify a violent person based what they look like or where they live. I read a book in another class that discussed the flaws in the system that is meant to protect victims of rape. The overall flaw has to do with the fact that our laws are meant to protect people from stranger rape (Megan's Law, for example), when in actuality, acquaintance rape occurs far more often than stranger rape. I think part of the reason the stranger rape myth is around is because 1) people feel safer thinking that they can protect their families from strangers by keeping their children close to home and whatnot, and 2) stranger rape makes for great media coverage. A Dru Sjodin case attracts more interest than a friend-of-the-family case. I think the same goes for cases of violence. It is fairly rare to hear about domestic violence situations within the home, but it is common to hear of street/stranger violence. I think people are afraid to accept the fact that domestic violence/abuse occurs so close to us. There is still this idea of "what goes on in the home stays in the home"/ "public vs. private spheres." But we should really be paying more attention to violence within families/close associates and less attention to stranger danger. I don't know if anything has changed since I was in grades k-12, but I remember being told to not talk to strangers, to lock your doors at night etc. but there was never any talk about what to do about violence in/near the home.

Blog 15

2009-12-19T05:20:25Z

When looking at the past presentations I think there is a relationship between the global sex trade and child abuse. These are serious that are happening in the United States. These problems are more common in females but are happen to everyone. We can look at these problems intersectionally because they can happen to any race, economic class, and either gender. One interesting statistic I found when I was doing our presentation on child abuse was that girls who were sexually abused were more likely to become prostitutes, which could lead to entering the sex trade.

When children are sexually abused they usually feel ashamed, embarrassed, or deny the fact that is happening. They usually face depression, which lowers their self-esteem. I did my mid term paper on the Global Sex Trade and found that some of the females that were involved were because they thought this was the only thing they had. They often were troubled women who experience hardships and felt that this would give them a better opportunity and life.

These are both serious issues that we as a society need to be aware of and provide resources to people that need help. We need to educate others on these issues to identify the signs of these events that are happening.

Extra Credit Response to mccar353- Week 15

2009-12-19T03:01:14Z

I agree completely about abuse and violence not being isolated to one specific group in regards to victims as well as abusers. People like to think that it couldn't happen to them as well as think that people of a similar social status, race, gender, etc couldn't commit such crimes as well. I think you made a very valid point with the idea of "comfort because that concept plays a large role in people's opinions of people's opinions about such issues that were covered in a many of the presentations we had for class.

Take women in the military or in sports for example, the main reason that either of these issues are brought up is because the general public doesn't seem "comfortable" with women being in male dominated fields. The same concept applies to women in industry in terms of women not being competent or "cut-throat" enough to do the same job that men do. People also are not often comfortable talking about sex trafficking unless it is about that ever present "other" so they don't fear it would happen to them.

All in all, one way to help make steps in the right direction in solving the various issues that we have discussed in class is to continually talk about them and help educate others about the reality of these issues, rather than the sometimes off representation these issues receive in the mass media. As always, education and "spreading the word" is something we can at least do on an everyday basis to help make a little bit of change.

Blog 15 Assignment

2009-12-19T02:54:48Z

I would like to look at the presentations of women in the military and women in sports. The major connection between these two are that they both deal with women in male dominated areas. Also, women in these areas have to deal with sexual harassment on a daily basis. I think some of the insights that we can gain from looking at both of these are how hard it is for women to break into an area that is predominately men. As a society we need to focus on why that is and figure out strategies to make it easier for women to enter an area that consists mostly of men. I think we have to start at the root of the problem, which are the men themselves. We need to break that stereotype that men have of women, being that women can't do as much as men and so forth. To be fair, we can't entirely blame the men. This is how society has raised men and it's our fault we didn't do anything earlier to stop these type of ideas. If we can make men change their ideas about women, then it will be easier for women to break into male dominated areas. Men will look at women as equals instead of a "piece of ass." This new true and new idea would be a major step in helping women break into areas such as the military and sports.

Blog 15

2009-12-19T02:45:01Z

Two topics discussed last week that are very similar are women in sports and women in the military. Women's participation in both these activities has been very limited until recently and women seem to face many of the same obstacles, the major one, of course, being the "good old boy" traditions that still dominate them both. Women have faced funding obstacles in sports because of the false belief that there is not an interest in watching women play sports. Women in the military face obstacles to advancement and are prohibited from taking on some roles within the military sole based on their gender. Although the military has said they are only trying to protect women, the lack of choice they are given and the idea that women "need" protecting shows the extent to which stereotypes are used to limit women in the military. I also found it interesting that both groups mentioned women being seen as homosexual because of their participation in these male dominated activities. I find it a strange association that just because women participate in activities that are often viewed as "unfeminine", they should be labeled a lesbian. Again, this just goes to show how deeply rooted our ideas about what is "acceptable" and "unacceptable" gendered behaviors.

Week 15 Blog Entry

2009-12-19T02:13:29Z

I believe there is a large connection between the presentation on sexual trafficking and domestic violence in that they are both pervasive social problems that happen behind closed doors, and are therefore incredibly difficult to mitigate. Even when the issues are uncovered, sometimes more close to home than we care to think, the issues tend to get swept under the rug. For many different reasons, human trafficking and domestic violence remain invisible evils.

Another thing that really struck me about both of these presentations is the under-representation of males when experts discuss the topic. The underground sex industry has its share of young boys, but very little about them is mentioned in mainstream coverage of human trafficking. And, as the presentation discussed, when boys are found, it is assumed they are in the underground sex trade because the want to be.

The same thing goes for domestic violence. Often times, it is assumed that the only victims are women and girls, and that boys stick up for themselves. But, as the presentation discussed, women can be abusers, and men and boys are frequently abused as well. Also, the consequences of violence in the household go beyond physical pain; there are emotion effects, and often when children witness violence they go on to repeat the cycle later in life.

Another interesting thing about these two issues is that the problems themselves are colorblind, but the coverage is not. When Elizabeth Smart went missing and subsequently rescued, media covered the story non-stop. However, many people go missing every day, but only middle class white girls are ever really represented.

Week 15 Blog

2009-12-19T01:45:53Z

The presentation topics that I thought were similar were women in the military and women in sports. I though they both represent the idea that women don't want the same things that men do and that women need some sort of protecting from physical harm. Women in the military, for example, are not allowed to be on the front lines with men. Women's sports teams have a lot less money compared to men's teams.
If you look at these topics together, it is easier to see the differences in how women and men are treated and a supposedly equal society. Women are assumed not to like sports and get less scholarship opportunities to play sports in college. Also, professional women's teams are not heavily advertised like men's teams and have little national recognition. Women in the military do not have many high level positions or positions close to the action. Women are thought of as being too sensitive to play sports or go to the front lines. Looking at these issues interesectionally, it is easy to see that gender effects these two issues more than race or class because in sports talent matters most and it doesn't matter when you join the military. Class effects women in sports because less scholarships are available to women and women who join the military often don't have a lot of money and join up to pay for college.

Blog 15

2009-12-19T01:11:24Z

I would like to compare the relationship between the Dove campaign and the cosmetics industry with the underground hip hop movement and mainstream hip hop culture. The main connection is resistance to the established degradation and objectification of women. Obviously, there are huge differences. The underground hip hop movement is local and community driven, whereas the Dove campaign is national and based in a corporate ad campaign. But while they may have different goals and varying degrees of effectiveness, they face similar opposition.

Both mainstream industries offer negative illustrations of women. The woman in the hip hop video is completely sexually available and submissive to the power of the man. The woman in the cosmetics ad is unattainably flawless, making every non-airbrushed person less than beautiful. Both represent an ideal woman, in the music video she's ideal for a man and in the advertisement she's ideally beautiful among women.

Part of the flaw in the Dove campaign is that they are just trying to replace the current ideal. It is a step in the right direction to put larger women and women of varying skin shades in their ads, but it has to go beyond just making a slightly larger, darker ideal. And as was pointed out in class, the shapes of those women don't really vary all that much, even though they vary somewhat in size. And they all have flawless skin and teeth and nice shiny hair. So, they do conform to some standards that I'm sure we could all attain if we would just use Dove products.

Another similarity between the mainstream hip hop and cosmetics industries is their relationship to social hierarchies. The hip hop presenters pointed out that knowledge of that art serves as cultural capital. This capital is used to establish hierarchies. In a similar way, makeup represents a woman's position on the established social hierarchy. Higher class women can afford expensive colors and cosmetic surgery, whereas lower class women are limited to cheaper brands and can't afford to go under the knife. On the other hand, makeup is also presented as a means to moving up the social ladder. If you paint your face in a certain way, you can fool the people above you into thinking you are one of them.

Although it certainly isn't perfect, the Dove campaign for real beauty represents a larger trend of women rejecting the unattainable and undesirable mainstream ideal of beauty. The underground hip hop movement, with its roots in political resistance, also rejects the mainstream norms of degrading women for male power. Female fans and performers are changing the image of hip hop, just like real women are changing the image of female beauty.

Extra Credit Post

2009-12-19T00:03:54Z

Another interesting thing about the women in sports presentation. I found it very interesting to see how when funding is used for women sports its labeled as taking funds and unfair for the men sports. Its real interesting to see how when funding is cut from men sports its looked at as a unfair and wrong. But when the situation is the other way and women sports don't receive funding there's no problem at all. Its just shows how we live in such as patriarchal society.

Blog Post 15

2009-12-18T23:48:00Z

Two of the presentations that stuck with me the most were the Dove Beauty campaign and the hip hop music presentation. The Dove Beauty campaign was topic is very interesting because the of the way they examined the techniques and strategies they used to gain awareness about the issue of body image, while still gaining business and earning money by the profits generated. The Hip Hop presentation was interesting becasue of the way they dug deeper into they lyrics of the songs, and took a closer look at rap music here in MN. Whats interesting is the way both theses topics analyze the female image and identity that's assumed and portrayed. The dove campaign does a good job of changing the "ideal" image and promoting unique beauty that says everyone is beautiful, in order to start a change from societies ideal image. While in the Hip Hop industry and music women are portrayed in such a negative connotation on so many occasions. Both these presentations take a closer look at the identity of women, and how it presumed, portrayed and defined. This is so key in society because all these key factors play a role in the way society judges and identity the type of woman a female is.

Blog # 15

2009-12-18T22:31:53Z

The last presentations were all interesting, however the two that I think had the most material to compare and contrast were the issues of Hip Hop music and Domestic Violence. Sure there is some Hip Hop that isn't misogynistic, however . . . too much of it is. And yes, we do have freedom of speech . . . however, at what point does Hip Hop become inflammatory and incites violence towards women? I know the comparison of racism has been made to sexism in the past but it bears repeating -- if the "N" word is off limits to the majority of the population why isn't the "C" word off limits to men? What purpose does it serve? Is there ever really a reason to use it? It's not okay to discriminate, to use disparaging language, to incite violence towards women )or anyone)through action or words. If we accept violent misogynistic Hip Hop we are essentially saying, it's okay that we demean women in mind, body and spirit. Women aren't worth the time or the effort if would take to consider the repercussions of a social mind set that listens to Hip Hop and then accepts domestic violence as a natural consequence or necessary evil in this culture to keep women down and in their place. Okay, maybe it's the mood I'm in. Hip Hop isn't the enemy, however . . .

Extra Cedit Response to brunn064

2009-12-18T21:04:41Z

"And while abuse is obviously real in the so-called real world, I think that the big question is: what is the reality of the abuse depicted in hip-hop work? Does it have a strong affect in influencing potential/existing domestic abusers? Or does it just provide a mean-world syndrome where people just think that there is more violence than there actually is, just because violence is so prevalent in the media?"

In response to brunn064's question above,

It is absolutely obvious that abuse is a real thing happening in the real world everyday and I think that it's going to continue to happen no matter what. I think it is good that people are acknowledging the abuse and violence issue. If people are more aware that it's happening, they may be more willing to do something about it or try to help.

I don't listen to much hip-hop music but I would think that a lot of people in this world look up to the hip-hop artists. They have a lot of power over their fans and I think that they could use that power to get the message out that the violence is a negative thing and needs to stop. However, if they are sending the opposite message, that power can also have a negative affect on the fans.

It is unfortunate that the media is the way it is and only seems to focus on the most negative things in the world. I often times don't even want to watch the news because it is so depressing. I hope that most people understand that the news is this way and that they are showing all the violence in the media because it gets more attention than a light hearted positive story does. The media is often more concerned with numbers/ratings than they are with sharing factual information.

blog 15

2009-12-18T21:02:35Z

The two presentations that really stood out to me were the presentations on the global sex trade and the dove campaign for real beauty. I think often times women's insecurities lead them to make decisions like becoming involved in occupations that involve selling their bodies because they are looking for acceptance and appreciation. The dove campaign for real beauty captures women's insecurities and embraces them as something they should find unique and beautiful about themselves. Something that also impacts the global sex trade I believe is the very provocative advertisements that show women advertising certain products. Images of women half naked dripping wet adorn bus stops, billboards, TV screens, and magazine pages. Women are depicted as sex symbols, giving the idea to young minds that women are supposed to be these extremely sexual beings. In the dove campaign people of all genders, ages, and ethnicities are able to see an advertisement of what being a women truly means.

When we begin to address the way women are depicted in society, we are able to change the way society sees women. Through this we can change the way women see themselves and hopefully put an end to the degrading work of the global sex trade.

Week 15 Blog

2009-12-18T20:49:07Z

The presentations of sexual abuse and domestic violence are very closely related. Stereotypes have a large impact on both of these issues. It was clear through both presentations that the media plays a very powerful role in reinforcing the stereotypes that society has created. Most people want to believe that abuse/violence only happens to a certain "type" of person completely different from them however this is far from the truth. These issues occur among all different kinds of people no matter what race, class, gender etc. they are.

Society seems to want to believe that women are always the victims and that men are masculine and would never be the ones being abused. I think comfort plays a huge part in these stereotypes as well. People only want to think about what the norm is and what is comfortable so, the truth is not always what we see. It's important in both of these issues to be aware of what the truth is and what the media is portraying because these can be two completely different things.

The bottom line is that abuse and violence are not isolated to one very specific group of people. It is happening everywhere across all types of people whether we want to acknowledge it or not.

Week15

2009-12-18T19:34:37Z

Among this two week's presentations, I would like to talk about women in sports and women in military. Traditionally, sports and military are dominated by man. Women were sometimes forbidden to serve in the two areas. However, during the last decade, women have increasing involving in the two fields. I think the way that women status changes in the two fields can fairly express the women's status in the society. Although women status has been improved, there is still more to work on.

In women in sports' presentation, it is mentioned that although the condition and benefit of women's sports players has been increased, there is still some gap between male and female athletics. Even though the passage of Title IX has recognized and helped to increase the right and freedom of women, there are still limitations that hinder the gender equality. WNBA and NBA has drew my attention that regardless how many effort has put to increase the equality between the two gender team, there is gap between's the earning and popularity. It is like in the current society, although there are continuous efforts to improve the equality and people are educated about the equality of genders, there are still some undermining problems.

Women are stereotyped to be physically inferior to men and that had been the fundamental discrimination that happens within the military. In the presentation, it is mentioned that women are treated somehow differently in the military. They are not allowed to serve on the front line because there are gender stereotype in the mind of the military men. In other word, one would say that they are being "protected" and has a lesser opportunity to take up a high risk job which would hinder their performance in the field.

By looking at the two issues together, we would think that stereotyping is the main concern. Women are always stereotyped to be weaker and more subordinated although there are many campaigns and laws about gender equality have been carried out. I think race does not play an important role here, but classes and gender do. Military targeted at the lower class poor people and usually recruit their force from the lower class people while sports are usually played by some wealthier people. Also, women in the two fields are always being discriminated because of their physical ability. Men think that women are inferior to them and this has further hidden the road of gender equality in the two fields. In order to achieve the full gender equality, I think there is still a long way to go.