Violence against girls is connected to stigma, lack of education and globalization
I think that in many cultures just being female makes you a target for violence, the fact that you are viewed as a second class citizen is enough to put a target on your back. However as we saw in Born Into Brothels there is a distinction to being a child (under legal age) that makes it easier to be a victim of violence. So many times we witnessed girls and boys being victims of verbal abuse. When one girl was getting water she was called a “lazy cunt” numerous times by a woman that definitely had age privilege over her. The children in this movie were portrayed as being the lowest of the low on the hierarchy ladder. There was a girl in the movie who everyone knew that she would be a prostitute and in fact when she was allowed to go to the school her aunt did not let her go. The other thing that was startling in I think that in many cultures just being female makes you a target for violence, the fact that you are viewed as a second class citizen is enough to put a target on your back. Another thing that was startling in the movie was how aware the children were of their surroundings. Every one of them stated that they knew how what other people thought of them, that their mothers were prostitutes and that they would be forced into it as well, because they were uneducated. However this leads into the hurdle of getting them into school. Their teacher tried and tried to get them all into schools but other issues prevented some of them from even attending. Even at that some of the parents/guardians did not go to see their children off.
Watching this movie made me realize how different girl’s studies would be from multicultural perspective. Here in America we of course have different cultures but we are all submersed in a general Western culture. There are definitely children of prostitutes here, children that have a difficult time going to school. However we saw in the video that there are hurdles society has to make to help these children. Even nuns knew that no one would take in children from the red light district. They, women of God, were aware of the little hope the children had for leaving that life.
These nuns were obviously not raised in Indian culture; they were outsiders trying to help. So as the blog prompt asks “Do “outsiders” have a right to critique cultural practices of others?” I defiantly have to say yes. I think critiquing is an okay thing to do. My issue is when a cultural outsider tries to change the society/area. In the youtube video we watched from Current TV on Female Genital Mutilation, a woman was in the town trying to change the cultural idea of FGM. This woman was not yelling at them trying to get them to stop their tradition because it could harm women but instead was helping them go to school and benefit their own lives. However in the FGM video we did hear from some women that their village was shunning them and giving them evil looks. This makes it painfully obvious that FGM is a tradition about keeping women in their place. Something else that I found saddening is that the tradition was once for girls to become women, however now most of the women have a lack of monetary resources and therefore perform this ritual on younger girls to save money. Therefore maybe the issues of globalization have had a huge impact on FGM being performed on young girls.
Watching this movie made me realize how different girl’s studies would be from multicultural perspective. Here in America we of course have different cultures but we are all submersed in a general Western culture. There are definitely children of prostitutes here, children that have a difficult time going to school. However we saw in the video that there are hurdles society has to make to help these children. Even nuns knew that no one would take in children from the red light district. They, women of God, were aware of the little hope the children had for leaving that life.
These nuns were obviously not raised in Indian culture; they were outsiders trying to help. So as the blog prompt asks “Do “outsiders” have a right to critique cultural practices of others?” I defiantly have to say yes. I think critiquing is an okay thing to do. My issue is when a cultural outsider tries to change the society/area. In the youtube video we watched from Current TV on Female Genital Mutilation, a woman was in the town trying to change the cultural idea of FGM. This woman was not yelling at them trying to get them to stop their tradition because it could harm women but instead was helping them go to school and benefit their own lives. However in the FGM video we did hear from some women that their village was shunning them and giving them evil looks. This makes it painfully obvious that FGM is a tradition about keeping women in their place. Something else that I found saddening is that the tradition was once for girls to become women, however now most of the women have a lack of monetary resources and therefore perform this ritual on younger girls to save money. Therefore maybe the issues of globalization have had a huge impact on FGM being performed on young girls.
Comments
I think that a lot of acts of violence against women and girls are about keeping them in their place. It even starts on the playground when a girl is told she can't play kickball with the boys just because she is a girl, and when she tries to play she is harassed. Schools offer so many sports for boys and very little for girls. From a very young age girls are shown and told what their place is. Instead, we should be telling girls that their opportunities are limitless.