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Social constructionism gender roles
Social construction and gender roles
Sociological questions on rape
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At the beginning of this school year Jessica Valenti, a columnist for the guardian, wrote about rape. She stated that in America people are very concerned about rape in universities but didn’t really pay attention to what she called invisible rape. Invisible rape as she describes is the rape we never hear about. The people that are usually involved in this kind of sexual violence are homeless, prisoners, mentally ill people, disabled, children, sex workers and addicts. Most of these mentioned come from a lower class. This raises a question. Does social class affect the probability of suffering from sexual violence? Most of the studies done about sexual violence are centered in race, sexual orientation and college campuses. It has been noted …show more content…
Rapist are product of “defective urban cultures that espouse perverse ideals of masculinity” This idea of men having to be stronger than women has been seen through many cultures. Sexual violence is seen as one of the ways in which working class men demonstrate masculinity. There is also a link between alcohol and sexual violence against women which is a big problem in urban areas. In the modern day there has been an entry of women into the labor market. The idea that women were just here to have kids and take care of them no longer existed. Men had to change that thought of them being the only provider of the house. This brought the feeling of men being superior. Men having to show that they are more dominant. This happened in many ways and one was through sexual …show more content…
There is no direct link between the amount of money a person has and the probability of being raped but there are some characteristic that make this an indirect impact. Being from a lower class makes women seem as if they are less feminine and there for not as important as middle and upper lass women. There is also a strong culture of machismo in lower classes that contribute to sexual violence. Women are not guilty for being raped, it doesn’t matter in what they work or how much money they
Men aren’t violent people from birth, they’re just taught that violence is a reasonable, celebrated way to assert and prove their masculinity. 2. Hiding in Plain Sight: Question #5 When reporting on men’s violence against women, journalists use passive voice and avoid gender altogether. They say things like, “that woman was raped” rather than, “that man raped that woman” as a way to make rape culture seem like a women’s issue.
This also leads into the fact that people interpret male violence and aggression as natural. They’ll pin it as something hardwired from ‘the hunter-gatherer days’. Often times they’ll also blame it on media violence, such as graphic video games, movies and TV shows. This is something much broader than that.
Sexual violence is sometimes thought of as a natural part of life. That men have an inherit biological trait that predisposes them to violence and that it cannot be helped. The famous quote is “boys will be boys” meaning that men have no control over their actions and that if they sexual assault someone, that it is just human nature. This is in fact false. There is nothing in the biological makeup of males that can explain away sexual violence. It is a learned cultural behavior generated by gender norms and the medias perpetuation of sexual violence.
Sexual violence can happen to anyone. In fact, one out of every six women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. Although, it is women who are targeted most often, it is important to understand that rape can occur to any person, regardless of various factors such as age, race, sex, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. What many people do not ponder is that most of the time when a woman is raped, she is actually blamed for the assault. As Aosved mentions in her article titled, ‘Co-occurrence of Rape Myth Acceptance, Sexism, Racism, Homophobia, Ageism, Classism, and Religious Intolerance’, she states
Until recently, rapists have largely been placed in one identified group based on their crime. However, the difference in violence prevalence, and preparation or approach of the crime varies distinctly based on the type of perpetrator. Thus, the discrepancy between the categories of serial and single-victim perpetrators could prove helpful to further create usable profiles for law enforcement, identify motivating factors, and assist in the development of effective treatments for predators. Although the crimes are similar in finality, the variable distinctions are as vast as the assailants.
Groth (1979) recognised four types of rapists; power-reassurance, power-assertive, anger-retaliation and anger-excitation. According to Groth’s typology, Marc Ronald’s fits into two of the typologies, power-assertive and anger retaliation. Power-assertive rapists are those who experience feelings of inadequacy and have poor social skills; they doubt their desirability so result to using aggressive behaviour towards the victim to reinstate fears regarding masculinity. (Robertiello & Terry, 2007, p.509). Sex offenders that fall into this typology often use verbal intimidation against their victims to feel a sense of power.
According to the Rape Crisis Council of Pickens County, one out of every four females will be sexually assaulted in their college years. However, rape counts for only seven percent of the college...
Rape culture, a term created by feminists in the 1970’s has some serious connotations behind it. Essentially this phrase explicitly states that within our society due to sexism women are blamed for their sexual abuse. This belief, that a woman is to blame for the harm caused to her is not only believed socially but enforces politically. Men are one of the most dominant groups in society. Thus, in this particular case men are the bourgeois and women and the proletarians. These men in power are able to control what civilians read, hear and see everyday meaning they are able to push a cultural hegemony, cultural hegemony is the domination of society by a ruling class that purposely influences the thoughts and beliefs of society for their benefit.
Studies show that women whose attacker is not a stranger are not likely to report the rape because of her emotional beliefs. Women also think that because they know who their attacker is, that it is their fault they were raped or assaulted, or they believe that no one would believe them. Men with high positions or who are in the public eye, such as police officers, politicians, basketball, football, and baseball players are often accused of sexually assaulting or raping a female but most women won’t report it because of their popularity, fame or they are paid off before anyone can find out. For Example, Kobe Bryant was accused of raping a 19-year-old, Vail-area resort employee. The victim reported the crime, but after 14 months dropped all charges. The charges were dropped because of lack of evidence and because she was offered a settlement that she took when she realized that she was not going to win her case. Statements like that detour woman who has been a victim from reporting it. When a rape is reported and it goes to trial the attorney may discourage the victim from bringing up any and all of the victim 's past sexual experiences to make the victim look bad and convince the victim that it was her fault that this act
The myth that men who rape women are sexually pathological has begun to be dispelled and replaced with an understanding that rape is an act of anger, power and control rather than lust. When people think about rape, they usually think of a stranger with a knife hiding in the bushes. He waits for a woman to walk by and then attacks. But that is not the only kind of rape. The majority of victims are raped by individuals they know or acquaintances.
According to Marshall University, Rape Culture is defined as “an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in media and popular culture.” In American society, it is not hard to find examples of rape culture. In popular movies, music, and current events there is an undeniable notion of victim blaming, and sympathizing with male perpetrators. People have begun to use the term rape as a casual adjective. For example “I just raped him in that game,” could be used to describe two people playing a game and one winning easily against the other. American society uses pop culture and current events to promote and justify the prominent rape culture.
Women are more likely to be victims of rape or sexual violence than men. Seventy-eight percent of victims of women and twenty-two percent are men. Women who are raped before the age of eighteen are twice as likely to be raped again as adults. Victims are at greater risk of rape or sexual assault while intoxicated. ("Sexual Violence: Fact Sh...
Rape has long been considered as one of the worst of crimes, but for centuries it was handled without much care for the victim. It used to be thought of as more of a harm against the man, husband or father, instead of something against the woman. In the past, some rapists were punished severely while others were not. This typically depended a great deal on the social status of both the victim and the aggressor (Karmen, 2010). For example, in biblical times, a man could be sentenced to death for the rape of a virgin, but a married woman who was raped could be sentenced to death for enticing the rape. In medieval times, a man might steal a young woman from a wealthy family in order to force her to marry him and thus give him better status, and during the time of feudalism, only the rape of a noble woman was a crime (Karmen).
Traditional sex scripts of men and women create for a rape-supportive culture (Check & Malamuth, 1983). Rape is a logical extension of our sex role socialization process that legitimized coercive sexuality. Through these scripts men are taught to take initiative and persist attempts of sexual intimacy. Traits of dominance, aggression and violence are idolized (Martin, Taft & Resick, 2007). Women, on the other hand, are taught to not indicate their sexual interest or engage freely in sexuality. They should possess qualities of being passive, submissive and sexual gatekeepers (Martin, Taft & Resick, 2007).