Group items tagged

Although this is not an "official" site per se, it still offers an interesting take on Art Therapy for Sexually abused adults. This is a program offered at a California YWCA for adults who have been sexually abused to express their experiences and trauma through the medium of art. In this particular piece the various pro's regarding art therapy are listed. The page also includes a list of references for those interested.

I think that this is a really great idea. I remember reading (maybe I misunderstood) in the Myer reading that catharsis does not actually help many, or have the effect many believe it to have. I find this to be completely false and somehow offending. Personally, a way I deal with the difficult topics that come up in our class is through making a connection between this class and my 3D Design course. I found/find it to be very cathartic in dealing with issues that arise in this course, as it seems many survivors do in creating their own art. I find it especially valuable in that it often seems to allow others to relate and connect their own emotions with their fellow survivor peers. Hopefully more shelters, etc. begin to institute this idea.

I love this idea and think that people need to engage in creative activities more frequently not just as a way to heal, but as a way to stay happy, which in turn makes one healthy as well. Emilie- I think that Myer focused on catharsis in a different way. He made the case that watching/reading/looking/playing instead of doing cannot satisfy one's desire for violence among sexual activities. But I could be wrong; I do not know what he would say in response to art therapy. I feel that all art production is a catharsis of some kind and must be helpful for many otherwise the practice might not have perpetuated itself. I am also not an artist in the conventional sense of a person who produces pieces of art on a regular schedule, so my opinion might be far from reality.

This site is about domestic violence perpetrated by police officers. I thought this site was interesting because it deals with a subset of domestic violence that is not always on the top of the discussion list. It talks about the added problems that victims have when their abuser is a cop who has been trained to be the authority figure.

I agree that this site is interesting and worth noting because it does happen and when it does, there is practically nothing a civilian victim can do against a government paid law enforcement officer. It was difficult for me to read because it reminded me of a classmate I had in high school who had been physically abused by his father who was a judge. His story was particularly difficult for me to understand because he had volunteered all of this information about his horrible home life without warning. It was also interesting to me because he had decided to leave his house to live with his grandmother, which is actually how we started carpooling. He was a year older than I, but he has a younger brother in my year who stayed at home with his parents. I never knew how to act around him knowing what I did even though he hadn't told me. The boy in my year must have had a crush on one of my best friends and had a poor way of showing it, which I think was partly due to his violent family dynamic. My girlfriend still tells me about how he stalked her and still calls and sends her odd and unwelcome messages.

I also agree that this site is very interesting. Not only does it expose a flaw of prosecuting domestic violence in our legal system, but also shows how traditional "masculine" roles influence domestic violence. I like that the author shows how police culture, which conforms to many stereotypes about masculinity, works to increase rates and intensity of domestic violence, rather than only looking at problems with the individual abusers. The only thing I didn't like about this article was that I felt it down played the difficulties that women who have not been abused by officers face. The beginning of the article made it seem as if there was a wide network of support and help for victims of domestic violence within the legal system, which is not typically the case.

Encuesta Nacional de Salud Familiar FESAL 2008 http://www.fesal.org.sv/, accessed April 2010 "Encuesta Nacional de Salud Familiar," is a site which has a document of statistics from 2008. The information shows rates and incidents of domestic violence in El Salvador. There are percentages that show what kind of violence is experienced and how women react to the violence, in terms of if they tell a friend, family member, or report it. The data also explains the different types of violence that women experience, meaning physical, sexual, and verbal. In detail it also discusses the kind of forms these three types of violence take, such as pushing and kicking for physical violence, humiliation and threatening for verbal abuse, and forced sex for sexual abuse. This information also discusses the differences of domestic abuse between rural and urban areas of El Salvador. This source helps to understand domestic violence in Latin America because it gives actual data and information on the rates of domestic violence in a particular Latin American country. Unlike other sources which do not mention domestic violence at all but only focus on femicide. This site is very helpful because it gives me the type of information that is very hard to find because domestic violence in Latin America is not a widely addressed issue.

Creel, Liz 2001 Domestic Violence: An Ongoing Threat to Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. Population Reference Bureau. http://www.prb.org/Articles/2001/DomesticViolenceAnOngoingThreattoWomeninLatinAmericaandtheCaribbean.aspx, accessed April 2010. This article explains how many Latin American countries do not seriously address domestic violence. Men may receive a misdemeanor instead of a felony based on the kind of injuries that a woman has, for example, if she only has bruises or does not have to stay in the hospital for a long time, than her abuser is charged with less. On top of this, police do not always follow through or even respond to reports of domestic abuse and courts and judges do not ensure adequate protective services for victims. This article is very crucial to my paper. I am looking at why domestic violence is not constructed as an issue in Latin America. This article shows that not only is domestic violence not handled as a serious issue by officials, it also demonstrates that these apathetic attitudes towards domestic abuse only increase the problem of it not being handled as a important issue and allowing for victims to believe that it is a not a worthy enough problem that they should report.

This is a great resource for understanding the intersectionality of gender, culture and ethnicity. It is the official website of La Alianza, a Latino Activism against Domestic Violence organization. This is a great resource to use for the understanding of the different experiences and expectations Latinas face when in abusive relationships.

I think this website and organization are really important because it brings to light an issue we have discussed in class, the idea of cultural differences and how to address problems such as domestic violence in cultures that have different views on it and may not agree with how others choose to handle domestic violence. This website mentions that Latina women have a strong sense of moral code to their families and to what they are supposed to do in their role as women because of their cultural norms and values. Thus, many Latinas, when faced with domestic violence, may not find it as easy to just leave their families or take other action to stop the violence due to these cultural morals. I think cultural differences is something very important that must be taken into account in this class and all over when thinking of ways to end violence against women. To many women in particular cultures, such as the Latino community, leaving one's husband or reporting a case of domestic abuse is not acceptable to them and goes against the very culture and values that they come from and that has formed the person they are. When we think of ways to help women dealing with situations of domestic abuse we must think of the cultural barriers they have to cross in order to get out of a violent home, which is why this organization is very important, because it is aware of those barriers and works to find ways around them and still end violence against women in the Latino community.

In conducting research for my final paper, which focuses on the correlation between domestic abuse and homelessness, I have gained an awareness of the urgent need for housing options for women in abusive relationships. Lack of housing is often the reason why a women chooses to stay with an abusive partner; the woman's safety is severely compromised due to a preventable problem. DASH's Empowerment initiative aims to provide women with safe transitional housing and support. For a scared woman who is contemplating leaving her abusive partner, the knowlege of a supportive organization, such as DASH, could be just the push she needs to escape. Though this organization is in the D.C area, I believe it is essential that such organizations are spread throughout the country.

First of all, I think this is such a great topic for a research paper and I am looking forward to see what conclusions you can reach from this correlation. I think people often overlook that empowerment cannot only come in the form of education to women, the importance of tangible empowerment like immediate housing is crucial to actually empower a woman to be able to leave an abusive situation. I especially thought the tools+trainig section of the site was an important resource since it describes how this organization goes about providing for help in housing and at the different levels (community based, government help etc.)

Gaudermann, Kimberly 2003 Women's Lives in Colonia Quito: Gender, Law, and Economy in Spanish America. Texas: University of Texas Press. "Women's Lives in Colonial Quito: Gender, Law and Economy in Spanish America" by Kimberly Gaudermann provides a very important historical perspective to my paper. This book discusses how domestic violence was handled in Quito, Ecuador in the seventeenth century. Women who reported instances of domestic abuse were able to charge their husband and bring him to court. The state empowered women through giving them the ability to punish their husbands if he hit them or mishandled their money or dowry property. The state's incentive in doing this was to control the money and property involved in marriages and to ensure that no one person had more power than the state and was able to 'play' them in anyway. This book is an extremely important aspect to my paper in answering the question of why domestic violence is not created as a problem in Latin America because it shows that domestic violence was not always ignored. Rather, during the seventeenth century the state was very involved in trying to prevent domestic violence and any man who committed this crime was punished. However this is not true today where domestic abuse is created as a cultural norm and the government does not do much to enforce prevention on this matter. I think this book is important because it creates another part to my paper that is not only historic but also develops questions for why the ideas toward domestic violence have changed in Latin America and how that affects women.

This article/campaign is really interesting and actually quite funny. I have mixed perspectives on the effectiveness of having a man walk a mile in women's high heels. The point of the campaign is to end domestic violence and raise awareness of the issue. It accurately demonstrates how ridiculous it is that women are expected to wear heals but at the same time, I don't know how much it can rally change a man's behavior. I think this campaign is more effective in the gender roles women and men face and in addressing verbal/social abuse, but not so much in physical abuse.

I found this campaign to be hilarious! What a great fun way for men to get involved. We've talked so much about how crucial it is for men to recognize violence against women as an issue for it to ever cease and here is an opportunity. The pictures were of firemen and business men who seemed to be having fun with the event which would most likely encourage other men to get involved. The pain of wearing high heels is only a fraction of the pain that women face as a result of domestic violence, but maybe it starts to get the point across to men!

I thought this was a really great idea. It is definitely important to get men involved, and this offers a fun and creative way to do it. I wasn't quite sure that wearing heels will offer that much awareness to violence, but more towards the oppression that women face, which can lead to domestic violence. It definitely demonstrates gender roles, ideals, and possibly will help men to realize the pain that it takes to be the 'ideal woman'. But I don't know how effective it would be in actually making men take action outside of the walk.

This website provides critical information for Spanish speaking women in the United States. It provides various statistics from the CDC and the HHS. It also creates a list of situations which may indicate if you are a victim of abuse or not. Although this site is in Spanish I believe that it is a useful in order to analyze what Latina women are being offered in terms of services.

I agree with Jennifer. I think the fact that this site is in Spanish is a great thing, since it is known that Latinas are high on the list as victims of violent acts. One important thing to note for the purpsoses of our class and our Diigo group is how all this information we have bookmarked reaches its audience. That is how this helps people understand the issue as well as the victims of the problem. It is important to have this information be accesible to all communities. By using spanish on this site they are reaching a whole other audience that might not have access to other resources on violence against women because of a language barrier.

Recent murder of a woman victim of domestic abuse in the Boston area. This was the sixth killing of the type in the last month.

I came across this while searching for ant-domestic violence campaigns and couldn't resist posting it... This is an article on a Danish anti domestic violence PSA, which apparently asks you to virtually beat a woman and then calls you an idiot and presents facts about domestic violence at the end. I personally do not think that this is an effective way to prevent domestic violence, as it would seem to desensitize people to it, but not all commentators agreed, and some that I read felt that this was a good strategy because it was edgy and attention grabbing, and would make people notice this issue. Other peoples thoughts?

I think this game is just as sick as the other game that we saw in the CNN article. I would love to know who came up with the game's design to see why they chose to use "pussy" and "gansta" to describe the type of man you could be, and why they thought this would stop violence rather than increase it. I think the creators are making these actions seem normal by putting the female character in a situation that could happen so frequently and by making the male respond to it with violence. Like we've been talking about in class, it seems like the game is only going to increase the amount of violence against women rather than stopping it.

What this anti-violence campaign is doing is making light of violence against women. Although the reason why it was created was to make people aware of violence against women, in fact I believe it is doing the opposite of what they intended. The campaign was created to shock people and to catch their attention in order to bring a focus on violence against women. I'm curious to hear about what others think and whether they believe this example of activism works in certain contexts. My question is, did this campaign work in Denmark? Was it effective???

This is a link to the Battered Women's Justice Project. This site is helpful because it deals with both local and international domestic violence, and covers a wide variety of issues including battering, stalking, child abuse, immigrant rights, etc. It both provides resources for victims of domestic violence and also works to show how to change the legal system and criminal justice proceedings concerning domestic violence.

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 is the organization's website that produced my source. Diigo would not allow me to bookmark the actual source because it is a pdf file so I am doing the organization's website instead) Consejo Centroamericana de Procuradores de Derechos Humanos 2006 Situación y análisis del femicidio en la Región Centroamericana. Instituto Interamericanode Derechos Humanos Secretaría Técnica (IIDH). http://www.conadeh.hn/pdf/Femicidio.pdf, accesed March 2010 Consejo Centroamericano de Procuradores de Derechos Humanos 2006 Situación y análisis del femicidio en la Región Centroamericana. Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos Secretaría Técnica (IIDH). http://www.conadeh.hn/pdf/Femicidio.pdf, accessed March 2010 "Situación y análisis del femicidio en la Región Centroamericana" is a document that presents data and statistics on violence against women in Central America. The study is focused on femicide but there is a small amount of information on domestic violence. This study is important to my paper for two main reasons. First, it does provide some information on the occurrences of domestic violence which is helpful to answering one part of my research question which studies the role of domestic violence targeted against women in Latin America. Secondly, this study provides a lot of information and data on femicide in Central America, including rates and laws. This immense amount of data on femicide in contrast with the little presented on domestic abuse demonstrates what is constituted as a problem in the region and what is considered to be important enough to study. Femicide has been constructed as the main issue targeting women in Latin America which is why this study and many others focus solely on that rather than other forms of violence against women as well. In my paper I am also looking at the constraints to studying domestic violen

This article is useful to the development of my research because of its currency and differentiation from the books I have already bookmarked. This article's highlights are: women and girls as young as four are raped on a daily basis, 100 percent of women in camps are reported as facing gender-based abuse, and the Sudanese government dismissing or denying rape as violence in Darfur. This article will help me look at the issue from a different standpoint as the books I am using come from the voice of anthropologists where this is the voice of a new reporter--something much different and more literal or scientific. Here, the reference to culture is taken out and we are able to look at the issue objectively.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, domestic abuse is the leading cause of homelessness in the United States. Women who go to shelters are tended to, but this article causes me to wonder how much attention and support their children are receiving. Domestic abuse and homelessness can have catastrophic effects on children, including behavioral problems, poor nutrition and severe emotional stress. This leads me to believe that there needs to be more programs in schools and shelters that focus on offsetting the traumatic effects on children of violence in the home.

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.

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.

This article by Sheila Jeffreys discusses female soldiers involvement with the military. She argues that they are in a double jeopardy of being symbolically objectified and physically abused. This article helps my discussion on the political acts of violence against women through an analysis of the United States military and their treatment of women. This is one of the topics I address in my paper and have used many quotes to support my argument