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 Lecture 6: Gendered Violence
 Homework:
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Goodwin, Jan Silence = Rape

Gendered Violence in the US & Around the World

 Violence against women is pervasive in all contemporary cultures
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Societies that have a high level of violence and male-dominance have higher rates of gendered/sexual violence
 Patriarchal cultures legitimize the control and sexual use of women
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Supremacy crimes: sexual violence is use to create fear, gain power, and control

 Social institutions, as well as individual men, create and continue violence against women
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Family
Mass Media
Legal & Justice System
 The level of sexual violence against women in the US is higher than most industrialized countries
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1 in 6 women will be raped in their lives
Every TWO minutes a woman is raped or experiences attempted rape
College age women are 4x more likely to be sexually assaulted
 Who are rapists?
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2/3 are acquaintances of the victim
50% of all rapes occur within a mile of the victims home

 Rape, domestic violence, and other sexual crimes are seen as a “woman’s problem”
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½ of rape reported ends in arrest and 22% are convicted
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Marital rape was not illegal in US till 1977
 Rape is still considered the fault of the person raped and rape victims often have to prove their innocence
 For example, in the case of an 11 year old girl who had been raped in her house by a 33 year old man she met on the internet, the judged reduced his sentence saying “It takes two to tango”

 Violence also occurs against others less powerful including children and those who cross gender boundaries
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“Transgender people disrupt a prevailing social concept that everyone can be classified in distinct categories, such as male and female, or gay and straight. Transgender identity shows us something that we absolutely, desperately do not want to see: that gender is artificial."

 Males perpetrate 95% of all serious domestic violence.
 Studies have found that men are responsible for 80% to 95% of child sexual abuse cases whether the child is male or female
 Males are most often both the victims and the perpetrators in 90% of homicides.
 90% of people who commit violent physical assault are men.
 The majority of victims of men’s violence are other men (76% M, 24% F)
 Out of 10,000 cases of road rage over 95% of them were committed by men
 99.8% of the people in prison convicted of rape are men

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The media help construct violent masculinity as a cultural norm
Unquestioned assumption that violence is not so much a deviation as it is an accepted part of masculinity
 Media representations of men of color (e.g. news accounts, roles in film, pornography, sports) have disproportionately shown them to be aggressive and violent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3exz
MPT4nGI

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On a broader level, higher risk is found in societies with:
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 traditional gender norms or a lack of autonomy for women restrictive laws on divorce and ownership and inheritance of property when there is social breakdown due to conflicts or disasters
 In a 10-country study on women's health and domestic violence conducted by WHO,
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Between 15% and 71% of women reported physical or sexual violence by a husband or partner.
Many women said that their first sexual experience was not consensual.
(24% in rural Peru, 28% in Tanzania, 30% in rural Bangladesh, and 40% in
South Africa).
Between 4% and 12% of women reported being physically abused during pregnancy.
About 5,000 women are murdered by family members in the name of honour each year worldwide.

 The Lancet reported in early 2006 that there may have been close to 10 million female fetuses aborted in India over the past 20 years
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Abortion and the “sharp jerk” method
 Cultural and socio-economic reasons:
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Women are an economic liability – dowry
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Family line continued thru sons
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Hindu religion requires males to send parents souls to heaven

 Female Circumcision or
Female Genital Cutting
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Clitoridotomy
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Clitoridectomy
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Infibulation

 Violence against women in war time is used to:
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Attack men
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Provide soldiers with the spoils of war
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A tool of genocide (minimize ethnic purity)
 The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women states in Article 1:
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"Gender-based violence is a form of discrimination that seriously inhibits women's ability to enjoy rights and freedoms on a basis of equality with men."

 John Holmes, the United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs: “The sexual violence in Congo is the worst in the world,” said.
“The sheer numbers, the wholesale brutality, the culture of impunity — it’s appalling.”
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Gov’t troops, Hutu militias, and gangs are perpetrators
 An estimated 70% of rapes include sexual brutality, whereby women are injured, murdered, and/or made to be infertile

 Rape as a weapon is backed indirectly by patriarchal systems which legitimize men’s control over women's sexuality
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Stigmatizes and isolates women
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Bosnia
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Form of genocide and ethnic cleanings – forcing Muslim women to have Serbian babies
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Women and young girls were held in rape camps and forced to be sexual slaves
Rwanda
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Women were raped or experienced sexual violence as a result of the war – estimates are around 500,000
Sudan
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Massive human rights violations committed in the region have included extensive acts of sexual violence, committed in a systematic manner by the Janjawid, often in coordination with
Sudanese soldiers and the Sudanese Air Force