Within the American society, there are many spaces that are deemed to be for fair use by all sorts of people, a public space. These public spaces, such as a park or sidewalk, should be accessible and used fairly by all of society, however, that is not the case. Men dominate these spaces, limiting the access that women have to them. Women are often fearful of public space, afraid of harassment, sexual assault, or other sorts of deviant behavior. These potential threats have been ingrained into the minds of women from a young age, and although they are valid fears, it further enforces the notion that public spaces are spaces for men and that by design they do not belong to women. The idea of being threatened or harassed in a public space is …show more content…
On average, 65% of women will experience some form of harassment in public areas. Many women have shared these occurrences “overwhelming number of stories of women’s experiences of being sexually harassed, frequently with tales of leering men masturbating at them in public spaces” (. This gross behavior is by no means endorsed, but law enforcement often does little to stop it. Unlike sexual assault, there are no overarching laws in place to protect victims of sexual harassment within a public space. Instances of harassment in the home, work place, and school are often met with the attention of law enforcement, why not in the street? As brought up by Marc Tran, “there are significant differences between domestic violence and street harassment” (Tran, 189). Although this is very true, violence against women should not be tolerated in any form, specifically within a space that should be available to all …show more content…
It is interesting how accepted male dominance over public space is. Men are able to assert themselves within an alley or street, they are able to loiter and stake claim to the area, often without major disturbance. Women, on the other hand, are not afforded the same luxury. It is assumed that “that women had a reason to be in a public” (Hickley, 80). Rather than being able to enjoy the public, women are only in a public space to go from destination A to destination B. Rather than being seen as equal patrons of the area, women are simply visitors, they use it as a source of means to reach their end goal. They are not welcome to go to spaces and observe; they would be violating the rules of the men's space. Women are to avoid the danger, strangers and mayhem that exists to harm them when violating and intruding a public
National data gives us an indication of the severity of this issue. When 1 in 5-woman report being victims of severe physical violence (NISVS, 2010), we must ask ourselves if enough is being done to prevent this from occurring. From a historical point, there has always almost been a distinction from men on woman violence. Based on the disparity of cases reported, male inflicted violence on females is much higher and prevalent. When the perpetrators of DV, and IPV are predominately males, we can no longer dismissed this issue as a cultural, or
Women’s issues are a huge concern to me as I transition into the adult world, especially when sexual assaults are associated with the college culture. From the streets of America to a child bride in Africa, women are suffering from abuse, harassment, and mistreatment. The feminist movement has enhanced life for women, but, in modern society, there are many areas that still need improvement. If we want to resolve issues over the treatment of women, we must tackle and overcome negative views of women, take preventive measures to ensure the safety of women, and bring attention to these injustices.
As it is in the case of the majority of violent crimes, (Davies and Rogers, 2006) perpetrators of violent crimes, and especially sexual assault related crimes exert additional force by threatening the victim or their families. Male victims also must contend with an additional sense of shame and embarrassment in being identified with a crime that has been typically portrayed in the media as happening to women. This places men at a disadvantage in the reporting process, because their safety and the safety of others is compromised further if the crime is not reported. (Messerschmitt, 2009)
In the past century, America has made great leaps in terms of equality. With the efforts made by the civil rights and suffrage movements, all people gained the right to vote. We are even moving forward with marriage equality, and currently fifteen states recognize same-sex marriage. But regardless of all of our progressive institutional movements forward, we continue to socially oppress women. Men’s violence against women has grown to be an internationally recognized epidemic, and will continue to grow unless measures be made to stop it. Domestic violence continues to be prevalent in the lives of many families, and is the primary cause of homelessness in half of cases for women in children. Many women have been forced to alter their behaviors out of fear of being sexually or physically assaulted. One out of every three women is sexually or physically abused in their lifetimes. The first thing that comes to mind is, there are a lot of people abusing women out there. Many people with opposing ideas may claim that men can be victims of violence perpetrated by women, but in instances not used for self-defense, it is rarely part of a systematic pattern of power and control through force or threat of force. In fact, 99% of rape is perpetrated by men, but when confronting men about the issue of violence against women, it is often combated with denial. Jackson Katz writes in his book, The Macho Paradox, “We take comfort in the idea of the aforementioned child-rapist murderer as a horrible aberration. A monster. We’re nothing like him.”(Katz 30). The sad truth is that most women who are raped are raped by men they know, or even men they love. Many men have a hard time believing that saying that most violence is perpetuated by men does not...
Since I have worked in a bar as a cashier and as security, I have been sexually harassed by men countless times. They grab me and tell me that they want me. I have had multiple different men tell me that I should make babies with them because they are taller than me and it would be a good investment for the NBA. Even though I tower over most women at 6 foot 3, I still have to worry about sexual harassment and sexual assault. Women are constantly told that we need to be on guard, stay away from dark alleys, keep our drinks in our hands at all times, and carry pepper spray to protect ourselves. When women report sexual assault, they are callously interviewed by police who ask what they were wearing or if they had too much to drink. We are being taught to not be raped instead of teaching men not to
Sexual assault is defined as any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and In the United States 80% of sexual assault victims are under the age of 30. Of that 80%, 44% are under the age of 18 (RAINN, 2016). That leaves 36% of victims between the ages of 18 and 30. These percentages become even more alarming when that 80% is of about 293,000 victims of secual assualt each year (RAINN, 2016). It is estimated that 1 in every 6 women in the US has been or will be victims of sexual assault in their lifetime. The risks of sexual assault increase on college campuses. Women ages 18-24 who are enrolled in college are 3 times more likely than women in general to suffer from sexual violence (RAINN, 2016). One would think that with all these women being sexually assaulted, one would hear more about it, or perhaps the police stations would constantly be busy. This is not the case. Sexual assault is one of the most unreported crimes, with 68% still being left unreported (RAINN, 2016). This could be because of every 100 rapists, only 2 will spend a day in jail. Of the 32 out of 100 that would be reported, only 7 are referred to an arrest (RAINN, 2016). Why would men or women want to report sexual assault when the system that is supposed to protect them fails so often, and why does this system continue to fail?
Segregated coffee stations, bathrooms, libraries, underestimated by men and so on.
In “A distressing summer of workplace sexism reminds us how far we have to go” by Susanna Schrobsdorff, the author states, “according to a Pew Research survey released in August, most American men—56%— think sexism is over and done with. More than half believe that “the obstacles that once made it harder or women than men to get ahead are now largely gone. Of course, most women—63%—disagree” (Schrobsdorff 55). The misbelief that sexism still does not exist allows for the culture in which women continue to only be seen as sexual objects and not competent workers. Ehrenreich describes that, “[you should] watch out for Lon, who has a habit of following his female coworkers into service closets” (Ehrenreich 64). Ehrenreich is warned about a potential harassing employee and that it may happen to you, but most importantly, the behavior is normalized instead of trying to stop it. In “Not Just Fox” by Katha Pollitt, she explains that there is a misconception when it comes to being harassed and it is that, “being harassed is not a matter of weakness; it’s about the enormous power differential between worker and boss” (Pollitt 6). This is further supported by “ a 2015 Cosmopolitan survey, 71% of women said they did not file complaints about sexual harassment, likely because they feared appearing difficult or ‘too sensitive.’And they worry about retaliation and job security” (Schrobsdorff 55). Sometimes the person that is doing the harassing is the supervisor or the manager, when this occurs the victim is left with little options that will not disrupt the workplace. She also runs the possibility of being fired solely to avoid a sexual harassment complaint that she may file against him. Ehrenreich states that, “as a dietary aide, as I understand the job, is dependent on a cook as a waitress is[;] He or she
Women’s rights have been a concern around the World since almost forever. The biggest advances in these rights, though, happened in America. For almost two hundred years, give or take some breaks, women have been doing what they could to advance their rights. Women did more to expand their rights before and during WWII, though. They spread their message by holding protests, stepping outside of the boundaries given to them, and reaching out to other women.
In a 2012 study 92% of women reported experiencing some form of sexual violence in public spaces in their lifetime. 88% reported experiencing some form of verbal sexual harassment.
America has made great advances in women’s rights over the last few decades. Women are prominent in the work place, living independently, and even running for office. However, this has not always been the case, during the course of history, women have been subjected to slavery, denied the right to vote, and have been viewed as property. Throughout all of human history women have been mistreated by men.
Perhaps they didn 't like the way this person was dressed or maybe they thought that maybe the strangeness of this person was threatening. While these may be some valid reasons, the root of the issue with street harassment is misogyny. That is defined as the hatred of women. In this video, specifically, the problem is trans misogyny. Trans misogyny means the negative attitudes towards trans women and trans and gender non-conforming people on the feminine end of the gender spectrum (CITE). Simply put, trans misogyny is the hatred of the feminine ,which is not experienced, only by women. In "America Reflexx", people were not sure of the gender of the person walking the street, but knew this person identified with feminine traits. They knew this because this person wore a dress and heels. This elicited an extreme amount of hatred by these people. While many of these harassers were women, the issue is still trans misogyny. Women can be as guilty as men when it comes to misogyny of trans misogyny. If a woman has a hatred for specific women or those acting in a feminine role due to them not behaving in a certain way then they too are a misogynist. For example, if these women attacking this person attacked him or her because they believe women or anyone identifying as feminine must dress and behave in a certain way, they are misogynists. The reason behind this line of thought is that these same women would not have
Workplace harassment is unwelcome actions that are based on a person’s race, religion, color, and sex, and gender, country of origin, age, ethnicity or disability. The targets of the harassment are people who are usually perceived as “weaker” or “inferior” by the person who is harassing them. Companies and employers can also be guilty of workplace harassment if they utilize discriminatory practices against persons based on ethnicity, country of origin, religion, race, color, age, disability, or sex. These discriminatory practices have been illegal since the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Civil Rights Act of 1964), and have been amended to be more inclusive of other people who experience discrimination by the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (The Civil Rights Act of 1991), and most recently, President Obama’s signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (Stolberg, 2009).
Harassment and discrimination claims are due to lack of education about the subject. As an independent human resources consultant, Santiago-Santos will organize a local education campaign and provide employers with different trainings to educate them and their employees about harassment and discrimination. Employers will have a better understanding on how to develop internal policies and procedures to address these claims. Also, trainings will be provided for employees and they will be educated on how to prevent and identify harassment and discrimination as well as what steps to take in order to report such behavior.
When people are born they are taught at an early age to be either feminine or masculine. Society has instilled in an individual’s brain that they have to live by these certain gender stereotypes. Society has made stereotypes that resulted in the world thinking women come second to men in every aspect of life. Women have been taught to be feeble to men and depend on them for social and economic happiness; meanwhile men have been taught to be “macho” and to take care of their households (Well, Kolk & Arrindell, 2005). For the individuals who dare to be different and choose to form their own identity, whether that is a man or woman are out casted and secluded from their community (Beller, Brattebø, Lavik, Reigstad & Bender, 2015). These particular stereotypes that society has mounted onto people have been a massive burden for men and especially women because they are the ones who have been negatively taught to be the inferior individual, unlike the men who are stereotyped as the superior