The once prominent leader of India, Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” Violence is never the solution to a problem yet violence seems to be, at times, the only way groups in society can express their beliefs. The world is faced with all kinds of violence, from social media to physical acts. There is no single factor that can be attributed to violence in society. Its causes are complex and occur at different levels within society. Although laws and regulations attempt to eradicate violence in society, society’s reaction towards violence varies based on gender roles. Society distinguishes gender in different ways. In the biblical scripture of Adam and Eve’s original sin lead to gender roles. “I will …show more content…
great increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Genesis 4:16).
For women in modern day society, femininity is viewed as the beautiful matriarch. A woman’s role is to be the homemaker and caretaker of the family under the superiority of her husband. Throughout history women have faced adversity in their pursuit of gender equality. One of the more profound adversities that women face in society is domestic violence. Up until the 1970s, society viewed domestic violence against women as a minor offense. Cases rarely came to court and authority would diminish the issue as being a critical problem. In some cases, society portrays domestic violence against women as a joke under the male gender superiority. “In the past, domestic violence was often seen as a way husbands could legitimately 'correct' their wives” (Anna Clark). Male dominance is variously supported based social class, rank and geographical region. “Since the 1970s, feminists have fought for protection against domestic violence. …show more content…
Rates of violent victimization against females remained relatively consistent from 1973 to 1991. The 1991 female rate of 22.9 translates as approximately 2,500,000 women in the United States experiencing a violent crime in that year” (Ronet Bachman, Ph.D.). On September 13, 1994, President Bill Clinton past the “Violence Against Women Act of 1994,” which provided action towards violent crimes against women, as well as civil compensation in certain cases. Today, society perceives domestic violence against women as a crucial problem and women have gain the rights to obtain the justice and retributions they deserve. Comedian, Patton Oswalt once said, “I had a romance novel inside me, but I paid three sailors to beat it out of me with steel pipes.” Although some may joke about the machismo of the males’ persona, society perceives the masculinity of the male gender to be tough and strong patriarch. Men in society are viewed as providers, head of household and sexual prowess. Today, one hears a lot of distress of domestic violence against women but rarely against men. The social norms concerning the behavior between men and women, differs depending on the physically abusive behavior by one person towards another. Women who are victims of domestic violence are encouraged to report cases to the authorities, whereas men who are victims of violence often face pressure against reporting, due to social stigmas. “Men are traditionally viewed as being physically stronger than women. Consequently, male abuse victims may not report incidents of domestic violence or seek help because of the fear of being perceived as weak and subjected to ridicule” (Plat-Jones, 44). In most cases, men feel they cannot publically report their victimization of domestic violence because society views men as being physically and emotionally stronger than women. “Society perceives male victims as ‘wimps', who are not believed and refused the status of victim. Men who attempt to report incidents of domestic violence are often met with discrimination and disbelief by health professionals and society in general” (Barber, 36). For the most part, society perceives domestic violence as a crime that is committed by men towards women. “The National Institute of Justice and the Center for Disease Control” estimates that over 835,000 men, in America, are reported victims of domestic violence each year. Expressing this data into time, would be for every 38 seconds, somewhere in America a man is a victim of domestic violence. Laws have been past to protect victims of domestic violence, yet men still feel restricted by society’s view on masculinity to get the help they need. Society needs to recognize that domestic violence is not just a female problem, but rather a human problem, and both gender should be freely protected without judgement from the cruelty and suffering he or she may face. President Abraham Lincoln once stated, “You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry.” Society view men as passionate and physical beings. War is sadly apart of life, there is no way around it. Different ideas and beliefs are the cause of anger that lead to war. Gender roles within war is a huge ongoing debate. Male soldiers are portrayed to be fierce and aggressive animals that society applauds for their violent efforts to keep our society safe. But when we break war down to its basics, what do we find? Men are killing men; husbands, fathers and sons are being lost every day due to the violence of war. Of the recorded war data from 1775 to present day, more than 1,354,664 American soldiers have perished in war alone. Today, one hears countless occurrences of American soldiers suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the violent event these soldiers experience at war. These brave and tough men are unable to express their need for help, due to society’s masculinity of male soldiers. Without the help these soldiers suffering from PTSD and other mental illnesses need, society is at risk from the men they trained and supported to commit violent acts. In the NBC News article about former Navy Seal, Chris Kyle was killed by a former Marine, Eddie Ray, who suffered from PTSD. Society does not experience the emotional toll that American soldiers do from violence in war. Society contradicts its intentions to eradicate violence by supporting violence of men in war. Entertainment is a huge part of human-beings’ social lives. One of the most popular sources of entertainment are watching physical and violence sports, such as football. Society is entertained by giant strong male athletes who ram helmet to helmet in order to make the biggest possible collision. In a recent discovery, Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist and neuropathologist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, found chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brains of NFL players. “This case highlights potential long-term neurodegenerative outcomes in retired professional National Football League players subjected to repeated mild traumatic brain injury. The prevalence and pathoetiological mechanisms of these possible adverse long-term outcomes” (Omalu, 131). Athletes who have experienced repeated concussions or other brain traumas are at risk of being diagnosed with CTE, yet society pays no attention to the personal lives of these male athletes. Just like male soldiers suffering from PTSD, male athletes restrict themselves from obtaining medical attention due to the masculinity that male athletes are superhuman who cannot mentally deteriorate. “Researchers with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Boston University have now identified the degenerative disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in 96 percent of NFL players that they’ve examined and in 79 percent of all football players” (Breslow). Society needs to recognize the harmful impact that violent sport of football has on its players for the long term effects. If society continues to support violent sports such as football, than more and more people are going to be endangered. In conclusion, society’s perception of violence differs based on gender roles.
Violence against women as grown to be a critical problem in society. Today, society has given women the right to obtain the justice and retributions they deserve. On the other hand, domestic violence against men are ridiculed in society. Society needs to recognize that domestic violence a human problem, and both gender should be freely protected without judgement from the malice and misery he or she may face. People in society do not personally experience the emotional toll that soldiers experience in war. By accepting the male violence of war contradicts its intentions to eradicate violence in society. People also needs to identify the harmful impact that violent sports, such as football has on its players for the long term effects. If people continue to support violent sports, than more and more people are at risk of mental and physical
damages.
Like child abuse, it affects every American by impacting those we love the most. Awareness for domestic violence victims has evolved since the beginning of our country. In earlier times, it was a private matter, and took place “behind closed doors”. They helped them past their sufferings and place them back into mainstream culture. (Karmen, 2015) Claims one movement that assisted with the process is the Feminist Movement. This widespread movement took place during the 1970’s, and represented the “beaten women”. It helped them stand up for themselves during their distraught times. Domestic tranquility ensures women their safety at home under their husbands’ protection. The Feminist’s Movement questioned domestic tranquility and urged women to stand up for themselves (Karmen, 2015). They discovered the “silent crisis” that lived inside so many women at the time. The crisis was that the men they married gave into the times of “behind closed doors” and “look the other way”. Those times would stand no more, due to the feminist’s movement and widespread awareness. Laws and legislation have changed since the rediscovery of the victims of domestic violence. One example is restraining orders. Restraining orders set up a level of protection for the women from the male offenders. Another example of legislation is The Violence Against Women Act. Promulgated in 1994 the act mandates that all states enforce protective orders issued in a
Stark (2006) would suggest that thirty years of research has failed to produce a consensus as to what constitutes a case of domestic violence considering that 90% of women who report the abuse have no physical injuries. Methods of coercive control do not meet the criminological viewpoint rather, control extends to financial, emotional, and psychological aspects of subjugating the partner thus no physical violence occurs. If only violent means are reported, then the reported number of victims would perhaps change thus creating a more gender symmetrical pattern. Until operational definitions are defined throughout the disciplines with consistency then there will continue to be discrepancies and opposing views. However, integrative theories of feminist views are being explored which investigate the intersection of not only male dominance as a form of oppression but the use of race, class, national origin, age, sexual orientation, and disability and their impact on intimate partner violence as stated by McPhail and colleagues
As can been seen when looking at the issue of intimate partner violence, both historically and more recent, much of intimate partner violence is gendered, meaning that men are normally the perpetrators of violence (Hattery and Smith 2017). For this reason, the feminist theory is one of the few middle range theories used to examine intimate partner violence (Hattery and Smith 2017). The assumption of the feminist theory is that patriarchy undergirds everything in human society and allows for the abuse and oppression of women through inequality of power and privilege (Hattery and Smith 2017). Patriarchy shapes individual power within the household, playing on culturally gendered norms and expectations, and institutional power, such as the criminal justice system; the main structures of society (Hattery and Smith 2017). For this reason, this theory focuses on the structural nature of the issue rather than the individual nature of intimate partner violence (Hattery and Smith 2017). Distribution of power allows male partners to abuse their partners and “get away” with it if the injury is not physically visible, or life threatening, it is not considered criminal. Most times the perpetrator of violence does is not prosecuted, whether it be underreporting or lack of follow-through by either the victim or the court system (Hattery and Smith 2017). Feminist theory proposes dismantling patriarchy, or at least the reform the way that intimate partner violence is handled by the court system through accountability (Hattery and Smith 2017). The largest flaw in the feminist theory is that it is said to not address “exceptions to the rule” which are cases where the female partner is the perpetrator; and fails to address violence seen in the LBGTQ community (Hattery and Smith 2017). The assertion that the feminist theory does not adequately explain violence in the LBGTQ community is short sighted. As with any heterosexual relationship, a homosexual relationship,
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
Violence against women and girls have been simplified and normalized in our societies today (and in history); they are not even recognized by humanitarian laws (Cross, 2013). More women are victims of physical and structural violence. High structural violence adversely affects women politically, socio-economically and culturally. Structural violence against women are built and maintain in the society through socio-cultural/political constructions and norms (Cockburn 2004) which are used to manipulate, dominate and control women (Canadian women
The word violence has many different meanings and has many ways of impacting people. It can beat someone down not just physically, but emotionally. Unfortunately, violence and abuse is not uncommon within families and intimate relationships. Webster 's Online Dictionary says that violence is "the use of physical force to harm someone, to damage e property, etc., great destructive force or energy" (Websters,2014) It includes abusive words, actions and criminal acts that seek to degrade, humiliate or harm a woman or child.. Often, the term violence is used to refer to specific, usually physical, acts, while the word abuse is used to refer to a pattern of behavior that a person uses to gain or maintain power and control over another. This essay
According to (Farney and Valente, 35-49), domestic violence is a major concern in the society, considering the fact that it affects the community in a detrimental way. Basically, domestic violence involves negative acts carried out on a person, which often tend to undermine and control the person. Such acts mostly involve physical violence apart from emotional abuse, with intent of manipulating one of the parties in relationships. From this, definitely, domestic violence is an issue that affects the health as well as social-economic state of individuals, and on top of all, it is a human rights issue. Reason being, there is downplay of human rights such as the right to equality coupled with security and freedom among many other rights through domestic violence.
It’s not society’s fault that they don’t recognize the serious problem of female domestic violence. Throughout history it was made known that women are usually the victim of abuse. Men were the dominant gender our whole history as humans. Strength gave men power to dominate women. For thousands of years this has been the case. So it’s very understandable why the sudden change of roles can be bewildering for most. On average, men are larger, and stronger than women. As a result, women are seen less likely to abuse
Violence against women occurs worldwide yet it is an undetected issue. In the past, violence against women was seen as a private matter between spouses and more often than not women remained silent and accepted this treatment from their partner. In retrospective, women were safer outside than in their homes because everything that occurred indoors was acceptable. Now, violence against women is a social problem because we have learned that it occurs in the macro level of the public sphere not just the private sphere of the home. Violence against women has stemmed from social norms and gender stereotypes which have influenced the violence.
Violence against women is a very serious subject, but the aspects of violence against women have changed over the past few decades. Some of the forms of violence that occur to women are as follows: rape, and domestic violence, which includes intimate partner violence. “Domestic violence or intimate partner violence includes bodily harm, usually accompanied by verbal threats and harassments,emotional abuse or the destruction of property”(Burn 26). Statistics show that in the United States there are 4.8 million rapes, intimate partner violence, and physical assaults per year (Burn 26). My interviewee explained how,“ Back then women were socially taught to keep their mouths closed when it came to domestic violence against women from their partner”. This is an example of how domestic violence has changed from the 1950’s to present day. She herself learned that it was socially right for domestic violence to happen when she was growing up in her own home. Women knew that they could not say anything about domestic violence. Today in the United States, all women have to do is call the police and they will be there, most likely in the women's favor because they are suffering from ...
For a person looking objectively the everyday life of an individual may look peaceful in the absence of any physical form of violence. But the everyday life itself may contain violence in structural form which is called ‘violence of everyday life’ (Scheper-Hughes, 1993). One of the best example of structural violence, but mostly taken for granted is ‘cultural violence’. ‘Cultural violence’ refers to aspects of culture that can be used to justify or legitimize direct or structural violence, and may be exemplified by religion and ideology, language and art, empirical science and formal science and thus follows “follows the footstep of structural violence” (Galtung, 1990).
As professional athletes remind us on a weekly basis, domestic violence is a social problem which continues to plague the nation. Through stricter law enforcement, improved hospital reporting techniques, and nationwide education and counseling, this problem can be reduced. Domestic violence has many different names such as, family violence, battering, wife beating, and domestic abuse. All these terms refer to the same thing, abuse by marital, common law, or a dating partner in an intimate relationship. Domestic violence is not limited to physical beating. It is any behavior that is intended to overpower and control another human being through the use of humiliation, fear, and physical or verbal assault. Domestic violence is a very important issue in today’s society because it has such a profound negative affect on the abused, mentally and physically. Verbal abuse can be just as damaging as physical abuse. Verbal abuse is words that attack or injure an individual’s self-image, which eventually shatters one’s self-esteem. In this paper, I will discuss the many kinds of abuses against women, the reasons why women stay in these relationships, and possible solutions to diminish or reduce the problems of domestic violence.
“One in three women around the world experience violence in their lifetime, often in the hands of someone they know” (UN Women). According to a recent study by UN Women, the estimated cost of intimate-partner violence accounted for 5.2 percent of the global economy. GBV undermines the safety, dignity, overall health status, and human rights of the millions of individuals who experience it, and also the public health, economic stability, and security of nations. Thus, it is important to address the issue of violence against women and girls and to
Women are victims of domestic violence, receive sexist remarks, and undergo objectification in the media. Domestic violence occurs due to the gender and power inequality in opposite sex relationships. Society has expectations of how male and female should behave in intimate relationships: men are expected to be the providers and the dominant ones while women are devalued as secondary and inferior. Therefore, issues of power, control, and autonomy are the main reasons for domestic violence. Every day, women experience sexism whether it is on television, at work or even at home. Society sees men as biologically superior creatures compared to women. Sexism has become very common and even acceptable and this is the problem (Gill, 14). If from a young age females endure sexist remarks, they would naturally accept those remarks and easily become the victims of the patriarchal society. Another personal problem that affects women is the objectification in the media. Sexually objectified pictures of women appear in television advertising, on the web and in newspapers. This encourages girls to think of and treat their own bodies as objects of others’ desires. Women try to improve their social position, yet sexual objectification reduces them to the status of mere tools for men’s purposes and makes them preoccupied with their appearance (Gill, 14). Women should have enough courage to
Violence. Just mentioning the word conjures up many images of assault, abuse, and even murder. Violence is a broad subject with many categories. Some types of violence are terrorist violence and domestic violence. Violence can arise from many different sources; these sources whether biological, cultural, and social all can evoke violent behavior. All cultures experience some sort of violence, and this paper considers violence as a cultural phenomenon across a range of various settings. Violence plays a part in both Islamic and Indian cultures according to the articles “Understanding Islam” and “Rising Dowry Deaths” by Kenneth Jost and Amanda Hitchcock, respectively. From an anthropological perspective, violence emphasizes concerns of meaning, representation and symbolism.