Group items tagged

I found this particular piece of art among several others under the category of on deviantart.com, an online community created for all sorts of artists. X4rsyzt3m, the artist, provided a short explanation of her piece, which included statistics about violence against women, particularly violence among intimate partners of which she is a victim. I read the comments below the work and was taken aback by what a person called Saywhaat and another called Humanisticparadox said in response to the piece. (I do not agree with either of them). Saywhaat was offended by the piece because she (I'm assuming it is a she) thinks that the artist is, "degrading not only [her]self but [her] entire sex" because the artist thinks that women should be treated differently, which I am not sure the artist is trying to say. I was personally offended by what Humanisticparadox said because he (he admitted to being a he) thinks that it is our fault that we are the weaker sex emotionally and physically and that we should be toughened up instead of protected.

This article investigates the experience of low-income Hispanic women in terms of their risk of intimate partner violence. The authors argue that because African American women and Hispanic women tend to be over represented in the low-income strata, their economic status affects the type and duration of abuse they may be susceptible.

This article is interesting because it is a study that compares the rate of IPV among Latinos and non-Latinos. It is interesting however because it delves into the impact of aproval of IPV as a result of cultural and alcohol related influences.

Unaware before taking this class of reality, I too, like the majority of society, was influenced by the misconception that rape was a stereotypical image. I have come to find through taking this class that the majority of rape and physical assaults are experienced by females from a male perpetrator who is an intimate partner, including spouses, boyfriends, or dates. When searching ways in which the violence against women has been an issue under which proactive means have been taken toward awareness or even a solution, I came across the website for the Bahamas Crisis Center. This page offers a direct introduction to the issue with the poster that states, "When we got married, I promised to love, honour and obey him and he promised the same to me. I gave him my love, respect and my heart, but last night he betrayed that love and broke my heart. He RAPED me." This page seeks to directly address marital rape as an eminent threat to the well-being of women and the society at large by taking a problem that ordinarily occurs within the home and places it in people's faces. The video "Silent Pain" is a collage of images, words, songs, and interviews. It begins with a description of the emotions felt by women whom are betrayed and raped by their husbands. When asked if they were aware of what marital rape was, those interviewed replied "no" and of those who were female, they remarked that it is indeed, unacceptable while the males depicted it as "a condoned act of marriage". Fortunately, the video also attempted to show how the issue has become increasingly apparent in the media to raise social acknowledgment. The video ends with a detailed personal account of a woman who was raped by her husband. I believe this is a positive step toward making a private issue a public one that needs to urgently be addressed.

This was an amazingly difficult video for me to watch. The explicit images from films, reenactments, etc. were incredibly jarring. However, I think that this was a good thing because it really sent the message through to me, even more so than the readings we have been doing in this course, especially those from last week. I think it is great that you found this. Is this also implemented in the US or only in the UK? This might be something really good to place within the symposium!

McDonnell, Karen A., Andrea C. Gielen, Patricia O'Campo and Jessica G. Burke. 2005. "Abuse, HIV Status and Health-Related Quality of Life among a Sample of HIV Positive and HIV Negative Low Income Women." Quality of Life Research 14(4):945-957. This article is important because it looks at how a person's quality of life is affected by HIV and intimate partner violence. This helps to address the question of my paper (how rape and HIV status are related) in that it looks at how rape and HIV can affect a woman's quality of life. The quality of life argument is very important because it will add a more personal, and less academic look at HIV and IPV. This will add a perspective to my paper that an article merely focusing on the spread of HIV through rape cannot.