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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!

I have bookmarked a specific event that takes place every year under The United Nations Population Fund. As an international development agency, UNFPA works across countries to spread awareness and to work towards equal rights and opportunities for all people. Working with the government of a specific country, the agency works on sustainable development taking into account the needs of the population now and for the future. This event specifically, the 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women is done every year and speaks out across the world on issues of gender violence. Apart from the set aside 16 days, this page lays out 16 ways the UNFPA is working to end this violence. As well, the website lists various other events they are hosting as well as sites to visit that show social and multi-media space on a variety of issues that one can use to network and learn more on such issues.

This is a great website, and I love that it happens every year. By not only providing websites and other resources for people to look at, just their presentation, as a worldwide event, makes it very effective in getting the idea of how bad violence against women really is. One thing that I thought was most effective about it is that it is not just the US, and not just a country that we hear about often with regards to their violence against women, but global. This globalness is very important because if someone who knew little about violence against women were to see this, then they could possibly become aware that violence against women is not just in the US, and not just in the rest of the world, something that is very important to ending violence against women.

I'm glad that you came across this website because people want to get involved and sometimes do not k now were to start. I feel like I can send some of my friends to this website to get started. I like that the ideas also involve men; it's something that everyone can do and feel good about. One of the 16 ways that jumped out at me was "Publicizing the issue of acid burning and other unusual forms of gender violence" because it is something that it is not spoken about and given a lot of attention to.

The Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence is an organization that advocates awareness on intimate violence as a global issue. The website provides information on family life and focuses on strengthening the partnership between parents and children.

I think this website is really important because it focuses on intimate violence which affects not only women but children as well. The majority of the other bookmarked websites primarily discuss violence against women, and although that is obviously extremely important, I think it is also very important to look at how violence against women in the home can affect children and the ways to help families cope with intimate violence and the ways we as a world can try and stop it. SAIV works to raise awareness about this issue that occurs around the globe by grassroots movements and by bringing these issues to different sectors of the government, two very important movements that help in creating change. This website and SAIV are very important to our class because they work to bring to light intimate violence as a global issue and the ways we can become active to stop the violence and help families affected by intimate violence around the globe.

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.

Active for Ending Rape is an organization that works with students to get organized and make a change within their own college community. Focusing on ending sexual violence, SAFER encourages kids to know their school's policy when it comes to such violence on their campus. Through policy changes, the organization hopes that university campuses will be a safer place for all. The website offers on-campus training as well as other free resources students can use to get going. With a list of other schools who have started using the program as well as specific student video stories, SAFER gives students the tools they need to get started.

This is a great webpage. One of my articles was on how one rape case in Holly Cross was poorly addressed. The importance of clear and fair procedures in college campuses mark a difference in prevention and in especially addressing the cases. I think that an organization such as SAFER ism important because it gives tools to empower students to end the inustice. It is a very positive article ! Thank you Kat.

Being a student on a College campus, I could not think of a better website to correlate everyday reality to this course. Also, this site seems appropriate to coincide with the Symposium, "Breaking the Silence", as it asks college students nation-wide to take a proactive role in sculpting the future of their College's sexual assault policies. It is important to note that on the Wheaton campus, we maintain and encourage a "don't ask, don't tell" type of policy where the discussion or realization of sexual assault on the campus is seemingly unheard of. This site encourages its viewers to be open-minded and encourage others to discuss the current campus policies and acknowledge that assault and rape do in fact, occur on college campuses nation-wide despite their lack of publicity.

This is a link to "Man Up" , a group dedicated to helping youth end violence against women and girls, it's slogan being that violence against women is everyone's issue, not just a women's issue. They give out grants to youth activists to start programs against domestic violence in their communities, and work through a number of mediums including sports, music, technology, and art.

While I fully support any non-profit organization's attempt at gaining awareness and participation by female and male youth alike, I would also argue that I have seen better-designed and more informed websites to encourage participation for the cause to stop violence against women. The section with the definition of different types of violence was rather informative, but I wish the "Get Involved" section would have been more in depth and easy to navigate to links of promoted involvement.

"V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery." V-Day is a movement started by Eve Ensler. This organization promotes awareness and education through performance as well as carries out campaigns worldwide. Their purpose is to generate media coverage and instigate dialogues especially with the younger demographic. This way they have been making an impact and contributing to end violence against women and girls.

"The simple statement, 'I Am an Emotional Creature,' becomes a challenge to the myriad ways in which girls are looked at but not seen, talked about but not listened to, used, discarded, violated, exploited, maimed, and at the extreme killed. Like a woman claiming her body, a girl claiming her emotions breaks a silence and unleashes a vast resource of clean energy, an energy that can inspire all of us to transform and heal the world."-Foreword Excerpt This new book is part of a bigger movement that seeks to end violence against women worldwide. This book is from the same author of the Vagina Monologues and seeks to raise awareness on the current state of the lives of girls and the, sometimes horrific, experiences girls around the world have growing up. I bookmarked this book's site because this book is one of many creative ways in which people are seeking to contribute to solving the problem of violence against women. By writting this book she is appealing to masses of girls that are more prone to reading this book than doing research on the phenomena of Femicides. It is reaching out to a different demographic and empowering them by raising awareness on this issue.

This is about a recent victory in South Africa regarding hate speech and rape. It is important to our course because rape is a major problem in violence against women. By taking action against offenders, in a country where rape is very big problem, the South African government is taking a stand and helping to change the future of violence against women.

This article draws a parallel to the questions/ workshop based on femicide in class. When discussing effective ways to raise awareness and stop the violence, the government seemed a major resource in doing so. I found it very interesting and surprising that the South African government is taking hate speech and rape seriously and being proactive in making sure this violence stops and perpetrators are punished. By getting the government involved in gender equality and violence, can allow change within society among men and women. In particular men can be educated in how to support women's rights and gender equalities, and also create new standards or systems of gender roles to advance gender equality.

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.

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???

I bookmarked this particular page because it is a petition to help end violence against women in United States foreign assistance programs by asking Congress to pass The International Violence Against Women Act. We are supposed to be bookmarking resources that respond to violence against women or provide a vision for change. This petition which is aiming to pass an important act does those things exactly because it is trying to change existing conditions of violence against women. If the act is passed there will hopefully be much less violence against women in US foreign aid programs. I think we in this class have a responsibility to be active which is why I posted this petition which we should all read and sign. I already have!

This site is a good way in raising awareness and encouraging people to participate in stopping violence against women. I really like how the petition opens with a few descriptions of imagining a world free of domestic violence, emphasizing how life for women would be safer, comfortable and prosperous. After looking through the site and reading more about the objectives/ goals of various organizations trying to stop domestic violence, I felt compelled to sign the petition and make a change myself. I think a lot of times we view issues such as violence against women out of our control or reach. However, I think by having petitions and sites like this that support the cause, will allow change and inspire people to be more active.

This article is about 6 students in India who chose to do a project on domestic violence which included an exhibition using props that symbolized the atrocities that women face. The article also deals with some of the reactions of the people that saw the exhibits.

This website is dedicated to showing how art can be used as a healing tool for victims of domestic violence. There is a list of exhibitions that can be seen online which include postcard art, dolls, masks, and family trees, and each piece is created by a person who experienced some form of domestic violence. I think this site is a good one because it shows how the victims aren't alone and allows them to possibly heal from the experience.

The Global fund for women is part of a global women's movement that is rooted in a commitment to justice and an appreciation of the value of women's experience. As well as, the challenges women face vary widely across communities, cultures, religions, traditions and countries. They believe that women should have a full range of choices, and that women themselves know best how to determine their needs and propose solutions for lasting change. This organization is involved in grant making so that it can seed, strengthen and link women's rights groups based outside the United States working to address human rights issues, which focus on issues such as girls\education, violence against women and economic independence.

This organization is very important because they recognize the many forms of violence against women, not only personal but also social. They are working toward creating peaceful communities while raising awareness to violence persisted against women. I like how they reach out to women around the world because I feel this strengthens the ties between women on a global sense. What women need to create change is money and the Global Fund is doing exactly this.

These advertisements portray a particular type of woman. I found that while a few are directly related to violence against women, all of them are working to perpetuate a male dominated society and an unattainable body image for most women. I'd like to note that there is a link on the left side of the page that brings you to positive ads.

While I was browsing the website, I couldn't help but think of the add we looked at in class about the shoes. Although the adds did not scream femicide I found them very similar. I understand media plays a major role in the oppression of women but I feel like the root of the problem is not the media and it is capitalism, which is a much larger picture. These adds are appealing to the majority of people and are succeeding though harmful and violent messages. I believe changing adds will help in challenging people's perception of women (I appreciated the positive adds!) but at the same time this is merely one problem and we must look at the larger picture of why this issue is happening and go to the root of the cause.

I definitely find this critically important. It reminds me of Dove's campaigns to highlight the abuse of women in advertisement. However no matter how many advocacy groups petition against this type of advertisement, we're still bombarded with these images of perfection, slenderness, sexuality and consumption. My continuous fear regards young teens and preteens who are beginning their "growing pain" period and have to stress about having "skinny hair" whatever that means. It's insane because if women our age are still highly susceptible to this form of advertisement, than imagine young girls. It's a really scary thing to think about. I just want to know how we can stop it.

Public awareness of the specific kind of violence being inflicted upon women and girls was still lacking until into the eighties. Cruelty such as genital mutilation, dowry murder, the trade in women, forced prostitution, abortion of female foetuses etc. were all accepted as cultural peculiarities.

This journal highlights colleges and universities roles in sexual assault cases on campus--it illustrates what they are doing to stay active and reduce sexual assault, but more importantly it tells us what they're not doing and why things haven't changed as much as they should have by now. As college students, I think it is important to be educated about the laws and policies of sexual assault on campus and why things happen the way they do.

I think sexual violence on college campuses is import for everyone to be aware and knowledgeable about. No matter if you go to a huge state university or a small liberal arts college like Wheaton, these acts of sexual assault do and can happen anywhere. One of the most important parts of this article is when it talks about what is not being done and what has not changed. Sometimes this is a good starting off point for people to see the reality of the situation and what is not being done in order to do something.

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.)