Home is where the hurt is
Violence against girls and women is so widespread that I don’t think there’s a simple answer to the question of what contributes to it. Enculturation, like we see in communities that practice female genital mutilation, has a lot to do with it. When children are socialized to believe that violence against certain people is acceptable, it’s a tough pattern to break. I saw that a lot in the things the children said in the “Born into Brothels” video, like when one of the boys said that they had to just accept that life was pain and sadness (paraphrasing). This enculturation can happen in a lot of ways, some we’ve discussed ad naseum, like the media, and also through religion and even education and public policies.
These things aren’t solely to blame, though, because so many children and adolescents that have grown up around violence have taken a stand against it, like the people in Chain of Change.
My service learning project has a lot to do with the pervasive violence against women and girls in our society- I worked with Victims’ Advocates for the month of October for dating and domestic violence awareness. While I’ll write more on that later, dating and domestic violence is a huge problem for women and children (and also men, really, although not as widespread). It teaches children a doctrine of violence, and every time an abuser “gets away” with a crime for any multitude of reasons, lives are changed and the shape of our culture maintains an ugly, hidden shadow.
I have a tough time with the question of whether “outsiders” can critique violent practices. While I will fight adamantly against enthocentrism in most of its incarnations, there are some things that I hold to be universal for all human beings, including a right to life, agency, and personal freedom. When there is someone being victimized for the sake of a cultural practice, it makes the line between culture and torture very hazy.
I made the mistake of opening the article on female genital mutilation as I was making myself lunch. I’ve heard about it before, and even read a little, but hearing about it never fails to make my stomach turn. When posed with this question, I really had to examine my thoughts. Was it so disgusting to me because of the implicit gore and my general ignorance of the culture’s traditions? Or was it because it is a blatant thievery of human rights? Just the name- female genital mutilation- was enough to give me my answer, really, though I read on.
I feel that if cultures receive no critique from outsiders, no progress would be made (whether or not progress is to be striven for is a different philosophical question). World War II comes to my mind, here- so, so many innocent lives were lost until there was an intervention. Long story short, I believe 140 million women being violently mutilated is 140 million too many, culture or no.
These things aren’t solely to blame, though, because so many children and adolescents that have grown up around violence have taken a stand against it, like the people in Chain of Change.
My service learning project has a lot to do with the pervasive violence against women and girls in our society- I worked with Victims’ Advocates for the month of October for dating and domestic violence awareness. While I’ll write more on that later, dating and domestic violence is a huge problem for women and children (and also men, really, although not as widespread). It teaches children a doctrine of violence, and every time an abuser “gets away” with a crime for any multitude of reasons, lives are changed and the shape of our culture maintains an ugly, hidden shadow.
I have a tough time with the question of whether “outsiders” can critique violent practices. While I will fight adamantly against enthocentrism in most of its incarnations, there are some things that I hold to be universal for all human beings, including a right to life, agency, and personal freedom. When there is someone being victimized for the sake of a cultural practice, it makes the line between culture and torture very hazy.
I made the mistake of opening the article on female genital mutilation as I was making myself lunch. I’ve heard about it before, and even read a little, but hearing about it never fails to make my stomach turn. When posed with this question, I really had to examine my thoughts. Was it so disgusting to me because of the implicit gore and my general ignorance of the culture’s traditions? Or was it because it is a blatant thievery of human rights? Just the name- female genital mutilation- was enough to give me my answer, really, though I read on.
I feel that if cultures receive no critique from outsiders, no progress would be made (whether or not progress is to be striven for is a different philosophical question). World War II comes to my mind, here- so, so many innocent lives were lost until there was an intervention. Long story short, I believe 140 million women being violently mutilated is 140 million too many, culture or no.
Comments
I agree. When something like violence becomes a visible part of society and rarely results in consequences for the offender it almost becomes an institution. You attribute 'enculturation' as a propelling factor in the cycle of violence of women but I think that's a little too vague. Rather, we should look at the gears working behind culture. I look at economics and the role money plays in propelling violence. I think its an undeniably strong fuel to the violence fire. People kill over money. Reasons for men controlling women's sexuality can be traced back to economic reasons. Children drop out of school because their family can't afford to keep them there. We should focus, especially in our society, on these underlying factors influence what we value and how we live.
I completely agree. I think that the discrimination of who deserves it and who doesn't is in all of us in some ways. As you get older I think it has a lot to do with being judgmental. Due to some of the things we have read in this class I have tried to be less judgmental. I have never had a victim blaming, "she deserved it" attitude, but I have had a few unfair comments about girls who dress very provocatively. I found myself doing this a lot during Halloween. I just couldn't believe it when I was at the grocery store on the eve of Halloween and there was a girl in there with her friends basically in her bra and panties. I started to express my disgust to my boyfriend that night and I had to stop myself. I should not judge her. Just because she made the choice to expose so much of herself doesn't mean I have to hate on her for it. She is okay with showing all that to the general public and that's fine for her. Just because doing something like that is not me, doesn't mean she is in the wrong. If we get rid of the judgmental habits we learn early on I think things would be a lot better.
Jen, you're right- I definitely used "enculturation" as an umbrella term and maybe should have been more specific, but I was afraid of getting far too in depth if I did so. I think money has a lot to do with it, yes, but it's a little too Marxist for me to think it's the root of everything.
Kristen- I feel you. I dealt with the same things on Halloween. And that judgmental attitude definitely has a lot to do with violence. With the "right" combination of entitlement and socialized attitudes of violence, someone could have agreed with you and taken it a step further- to beat or rape her, for instance, and say that she was asking for it for dressing that way, or that they thought she deserved it.
That might have been a little convoluted, but I guess I'm trying to say with those judgmental attitudes, violence is an almost easy next step for some, and that's scary.