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In Hillary Potters “Battle Cries” Black women are constantly abused by their intimate partners. Abuse is described to be triggered by a number of different factors. Factors were the entitlement of the man, age of the victims, socioeconomics, race, and repeated victimization, termination of the relationship, jealousy, and substance abuse. First, you have men who believed they were entitled to control the women. He was the hierarchy figure in the relationship. The woman’s respect towards the man was demanded rather than earned. She was to obey his orders and comply with his every decision. If not, she was to be punished by any means necessary. Along with this you have men who felt that “It’s a man thing.” This was the way of life of which they felt was a part …show more content…
Almost as if they were to be trained as an animal. Second, socioeconomic status was a key factor in abusive relationships. Lower income women are proven to be more frequently victims of domestic violence than wealthier women. Situations where the male partner is underemployed or unemployed, he’s not seeking employment, or they are residing in a poor neighborhood all can have an impact of on abusive relationships. Third, some batterers were abused themselves. Here, batterers were abused during their upbringing whether it be physical, verbal, or sexually abused. They may have also witnessed domestic violence as a part of their childhood. From here, being abusive was embedded in their mind. They were confused about a healthy relationship. Using violence as a means of power and control was the way of life. Boys who witness domestic violence are more likely to batter as an adult. Fourth, race was another factor when being abusive. Black women seem to be more disrespectful towards men and talk out of line resulting in abuse. Black women also worry about the repercussions of reporting domestic violence. A lot of abusive relationships go
The sexual abuse of african-american women, and african women began with slavery, and can be noted as the first shift in inequality and lack of control over one’s own body. The psychological, and physiological construct of control is deeply rooted in history. Slavery, for example, was the physical dehumanization of another human being who was thought to be inferior. Psychologically, the act of physical constraint must have internalized ideas of social dominance. Especially, when slave owners, overseers, and drivers would take advantage of their authority and of their powerful positions to rape enslaved women. After the emancipation of the slaves, white men were no longer in control, and this generated a fear of equality with african-american
Domestic violence is a learned behavior and pattern which is often caused by an interaction of situational and individual factors. The offender may have learned violence by seeing someone else being abused often or they may have been victims themselves. Because domestic violence is also a pattern, most offenders are arrested on subsequent domestic violence charges within a year after the conclusion of their previos conviction.
In the documentary Crime After Crime, Deborah Peagler suffered abuse from her intimate partner through her life. The abuse started in High School. When her mother introduced her to Oliver Wilson, his charming personality fooled everyone. Oliver forced her into prostitution to make money for him. When she refused, he beat her until she promised to sell herself. The beating gradationally evolved to bull whipping. In addition, all of this occurred during her junior and senior year in high school. Oliver felt it was his right to have ultimate control over Deborah, this fact is generally accepted in the society (Belknap 247). The male dominance, male authority over women is something taught to young children. It is sought to be the place of women to wait for the husband by the door when he comes home. The male masculinity fact kicked in and it drove him to force his dominance over Deborah into physical abuse. When Deborah refused to do his bidding, he felt it was necessary for him to show her who is in control by beating her. This is the message sent to young boys of past generations and a bit less for the current one through media and entertainment.
Domestic violence is both a chosen and learned behavior, it is used to gain and maintain power and control over the intimate partner.
“Women have throughout history been the most victimized by someone they knew (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence pg. 1) Most abusers usually start out with emotional abuse because it makes the target emotionally weaker and less likely to fight back. It also probably has the most different ways to inflict abuse. Characteristics of emotional abuse usually consist of putting her down, making her feel bad about herself, name calling, mind games, humiliation, making her feel guilty, and think she’s crazy. A more specific action would be using the children to make her feel guilty about them (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence pg.2). This is usually done by using visitation to harass her and or the children, using the kids to relay messages, and threatening to take them away( National Coalition Against Domestic Violence pg.2 ).Abusers are also known to use things like “coercion and threats”( National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Pg2 ). “Two of the most common threats are to leave them or commit suicide” (National Coalitional Against Domestic Violence pg 2 ). “Most domestic abuse cases are never reported to the authorities (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence pg.1 ).” This is probably due to the fact that most are too ashamed of what is going on and feel that they let it happened or they deserve the horrible ...
An occurrence of violence is typically companied with controlling and emotionally abusive behavior which makes up a small amount of the pattern that is part of the dominance and control of the partner inflicting the abuse. Some effects of intimate partner violence include physical injury, trauma psychologically, and even death in extreme cases. The occurrence of domestic violence can go one for someone’s entire life and it can even be passed down to future generations. This happens when the abuse is not reported or dealt with and the children begin to see it on a regular basis making it something that they know as a second nature thing that happens. In occurrences of domestic violence, violence is not equal which means that even if victim their abuser back or initiates more violence to diffuse a situation, the violence is not the same. Whenever abuse occurs there is always one person who is the “primary, constant, source of power, control, and abuse in the relationship” (NCADV,
Domestic violence, or intimate partner violence, can be defined as knowingly cause, attempt to cause, or threaten to cause harm or force to someone who is living within the same household and has an emotional relationship (i.e. Parent, child, spouse) or are pragmatically living together. (Bohm 249) Domestic violence can affect more than just the victim and the batterer. Children who grow up in families where violence occurs are more likely to demonstrate violence themselves or withdraw, having seen “daddy hit mommy.” Women who are battered tend to be emotional and have an increased chance of being depressed, anxious, or suicidal. Men, most commonly the abuser, often demonstrate jealousy, hypersensitivity, and threat of violence.
Andrea Dworkin devoted her life to supporting feminism. In one of her speeches, she states, “Male supremacy is fused into the language, so that every sentence both heralds and affirms it.” Andrea’s quote shows that male supremacy is so common that it is practically part of human nature. In society, men feel entitled to abuse their wives whenever they feel discouraged or depressed. For example, when husbands do not treat their wives with the respect they deserve, it can lead to violence or divorce. This has been recently shown by Pentecostal evangelist Juanita Bynum. She filed for divorce from her husband following a brutal domestic violence incident. In analysis, when husbands abuse their wives, it does not cure their hurtful feelings; it only creates problems and hurts women. Historically, Southern men in the middle 1900’s, like the ones in The Color Purple, traditionally treated their wives as if they were worthless or unimportant. In her novel, The Color Purple, Alice Walker shows husbands abuse their power over their wives to escape their problems through Harpo, Mr. _____ and Gra...
Violence or abuse can happen to anybody at any given time. The main purpose any abuser does this to gain or have total control over you. When people do this they are most likely to feel guilty about the situation (Abuse p.1, p1). There are two types of violence’s such as physical and emotional. Physical violence is the use of physical force against someone to put them in harm’s way. It is a crime and you will be dealt with (Abuse p.1, p2). The higher risk for most people to be hurt or even dead is the person or partner they are dealing with(Abuse p.1,p2).Physical violence is not picky about who it chooses the main targets are women because they are more emotional than men(Abuse p.1,p2). The second abuse is emotional, Emotional violence is dealing with your feelings and of your self-worth. Being a victim of emotional violence make you feel like there is no hope for you (Abuse p.1, p3). Emotional violence is verbal such as yelling or calling you out your name and it makes you feel unwanted or by yourself like you can’t talk to anyone. People who use emotional violence tend to throw a lot of threats of physical abuse as well as force them to do things that they do not want to do or deal with (Abuse p.1, p3). Both emotional and physical violence’s are real and they both leave scars physical and emotional that are hard to come back from or heal to move forward with life (Abuse p.1,
Lloyd and Emory’s analysis has been noted to uniquely focus on the interpersonal dyad, instead of strictly the victim or perpetrator. My personal preference for this body of work would have been to expand into the degree of dependence these women had on their partners. In an interest to facilitate a consistent sample, the women interviewed were all white, young, and predominantly middle-class with college educations. It is a sad presumption, but I would guess much higher levels of abuse are experienced in minority, lower class, struggling households. In this case, the dependence on a male may greatly increase the amount of physical and sexual aggression a victim is willing to tolerate. Lloyd and Emory do an exemplary job in exposing the sad truths of real life abuse, however I don’t think the imbalance of external factors plays enough of a role in explanation. The focus is greatly on the internal dynamic of the
To start off I will discuss spousal abuse and its affect on people. Surveys in the US and Canada have shown each year about 12 percent of all spouses push, grab, shove or slap their partner and one to three percent use more extreme violence (Dutton, 1992; Straus & Gelles, 1990). Also you need to keep in mind that these surveys depend on self-reporting and young adults who are low-income or immigrants usually don’t take the time to take the surveys. There are many things that can lead to abuse in a relationship such as social pressures that create stress, personality pathologies like poor impulse control and drug or alcohol abuse (Gelles, 1993; McKenry et al., 1995; O’Leary, 1993; Straus &Yiodanis, 1996; Yllo, 1993). Another critical factor is the history of child neglect or mistreatment. Obviously if a child is exposed to a lot of spousal abuse, physical or mental abuse, or even sexual abuse can increase the risk of that person being abusive when they’re older or possibly even being a victim. There are two forms of spouse abuse that can be seen when a relationship is looked at closer (Johnson, 1995). The first form is called common couple violence in which one or both partners engage in outbursts of verbal and physical attack (Berger, 2003). This common couple violence involves yelling, insults, and physical abuse but they are not part of the campaign of dominance. Women are just as likely to commit this type of abuse as well as men but sometimes both partners get involved in the arguments. For the most part a couple involved in common couple violence gradually learn to resolve conflicts in a more constructive way either on their own or with a counselor. However there are some couples that can evolve into worse abuse.
...ediately. A relationship is never be easy going the entire time. Arguments do happen, but in positive and healthy relationships neither party should ever use physical force to get what they want. Healthy relationships involve mutual respect in contrast to unhealthy relationships when the abuser uses violence to solve every problem. Abusive relationships can go undetected until it is too late. There are many reasons why both men and women stay in abusive relationships. Victims stay with their abusers because they are mentally dependent, and afraid for their lives. Also, if children are involved, they don’t want them to be without a father. Furthermore, learning about the Social Learning Theory, we need to stop the violence before it becomes a pattern in the family. If this behavior continues, an on-going cycle of violence could easily carry on for generations to come.
“He loved me and he beat me. I loved him and I took it. It's as simple as that, and as stupid and complicated. It's terrible. It's like knowing someone you love is dead but not having the body to prove it. He loved me. I know it.”(Doyle). I feel as if many domestic partners have said this or may have felt this way. I often wondered why some women stay in abusive relationships and you don’t realized how often domestic violence happens until you hear one of your family members going through it. The most common reasons found with women staying in an abusive relationship is fear, love, and low self –esteem. So we must ask ourselves why do some women stay in abusive relationship?
“Domestic violence is a violent confrontation between family or household members involving physical harm, sexual assault, or fear of physical harm” (Stewart & Croudep, 1998-2012). In most places domestic violence is looked on as one of the higher priorities when trying to stop crime. Domestic Violence cases are thought to be influenced by the use of alcohol, drugs, stress or anger but in reality, they are just learned behaviors by the batterer. These habits can be stopped as long as one seeks help (Stewart & Croudep, 1998-2012). For instance, a child is brought up in a household that is constantly involved in criminal acts. As this child grows up, the criminal lifestyle will be synonymous with his/her behavior. With that being said, it is also a given fact that if a household and its members are surrounded with violence, the relationships between one another will be strained. Eventually this will end up in a divorce or even worse, death, depending on how far the violence goes. If there is violence in a family, then the ones who are affected by it may feel like they deserve it because of what the batterer is accusing them of doing. Battering occurs among people of all races, ages, socio-economic classes, religious affiliations, occupations, and educational backgrounds (Stewart & Croudep, 1998-2012). Domestic violence can affect families in more aspects than one; the husband-wife relationship, the children, and also the financial stability.
Similar to the sociological perspective, the feminist perspective also justify their reasoning through social factors that these women have to face (Cavanaugh, Gelles, & Loseke 2014). What distinguishes the feminist perspective apart from the sociological perspective is that the feminist framework only focuses on social constructs that are attributed to gender inequality or the gendered nature of society. In society, men are usually seen as superior to women. This may explain why women choose to stay because of the fear of retaliation. The masculine traits that men possess are usually used to justify their abusive nature (O’Neal and Beckman ____ ). The feminist theory emphasises that there is a link between masculinity and violence. Some of these masculine traits include aggression, domination, confidence, and independence (Eckstein 2011). Contradictory to the behaviors men are expected to possess, women are expected to be submissive, empathetic, vulnerable, and patient. Because of these gendered stereotypes that exist, women may be more willing to put up with the men’s abusive nature. They may be scared to retaliate because there could be more severe consequences. The last reason why women may stay in their abusive relationships is due to the fear of losing their child (Mata-Pariente, Plazoala-Castano, & Ruiz-Perez 2006). Women are seen as