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Lancaster, Roger M. 1992 Life is Hard: Machismo, Danger, and the Intimacy of Power in Nicaragua. Berkeley: University of California Press "Life is Hard: Machismo, Danger, and the Intimacy of Power in Nicaragua" by Roger N. Lancaster discusses domestic abuse in Managua, Nicaragua. Lancaster discusses the unequal power structures that exist between genders and enforced gender norms. The machismo culture in Managua produces men who show their masculinity through violence, power, and dominance over the women in their lives. Women also have fixed gender roles of tending to their domestic chores and obeying their husbands. When women act outside of their gender roles, such as drinking, not listening to their husband, or telling their husband what to do, this is when their husband hits them in order to show that they are the men and thus they have the power. This book is important to my paper because it explains how domestic violence is culturally situated in Latin America and what cultural circumstances cause domestic violence, which in this case are gender norms including women's inequality and men's power over women.

This article discusses the actions and motives of solder-rapists. It discusses who should be held accountable and what war time rape means for political structure and gender inequality. This article allows me to further investigate the psychology of soldiers who are commanded to rape and better understand the concept of male domination. It also allows me to draw conclusions about what women suffer through the in-depth stories some of the men in this article have described.

Dines, Gail., Jensen, Bob. 1997. Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality. New York, NY: Routledge. * This book is quite interesting because it is written by feminists that are involved in the anti-pornography movement. Because of their stance it is important to try and read what they present objectively. What the authors claim to be doing within their book is changing sex from something used to oppress women, to something used to liberate them. In order to do that they point out all of the social, and legal constructs that cause pornography to be so detrimental to women. This book does not provide and empirical evidence or research, but does provide an extensive overview of pornography's role in the cultural construction of gender and sexual identity. I think that this book will be extremely helpful in both causing me to think from a perspective I may not have before, as well as providing an extensive amount of background information.

This is article was on the front page of the Economist on March 4th, 2010. This article has a great deal of information on the current phenomena seen on how "technology, declining fertility and ancient prejudice are combining to unbalance societies" This article focuses on China, India and South Korea but touches on the general issue a lot. This article is a good resource to understand how violence against women can start even before they are born. Furthermore, you can see the political prejudices that go into it.

I think that this issue relates a lot to violence against women and cultural perceptions of women around the world. By choosing not to keep, or evening killing a child simply because it is a girl you are putting forth the image that girls are not as important as boys, and have less worth. I know that in many cultures this is believed to be true at all ages, but it especially hits home when those involved can't in any way defend themselves.

This article is very important because it shows how economical factors, cultural factors, technology and the goverment contribute in some way to "gendercide" and how they also sustain the hatred against women. This factors help us understand that violence against women, even when they havent been born yet is connected to other factors beyond culture. This article is important in the aspect that it shows that hatred and violence against women may take place even before they are born and it is also important because it discusses a number of factors that contribute to it. This article conncts to my articles on Guatemala because the goverment and other social factors also perpertuate inequality and violence against women.

I would like to preface this by saying that I love James Brown and respect him as the Godfather of Soul and appreciate his work not only for it in itself, but for all of the artists whose work he influenced. I am glad that Christina Aguilera took the effort to honor him at the 2007 Grammy's, but am not sure why she picked "Its a Mans World" as the song to sing in his remembrance. I can admit that I like the song, but not the lyrics. I feel that this song is pertinent to our class because it shows that patriarchy is still the driving force behind our society. James Brown has produced so much work worthy of remembering, but this particular song makes me uncomfortable. It shouldn't be just a man's world, but everyone's world. I'm glad that he decided "it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl," but I just don't think that is the right approach. I had a difficult time choosing between this song and Respect by Aretha Franklin because they are both great, but then I found Christina's version and thought it was worth mentioning.

I must admit as well that I love this song and Christina Aguilera. With that being said, this song title captures the essence of our patriarchal society. James Brown was a brilliant musician and to be a true artist, you must observe the world you live and and deliver your emotional response. He did this by acknowleging the reality that we live in a society of male privilege. I would also like to add that this clip is another example of how the media helps to perpetuate our beliefs about women and is a tool to keep women subordinate to men.