Group items tagged

Men Can Stop Rape is an organization dedicated toward mobilizing the male youth to speak out against violence against women. The website advocates males to come together and work alongside women in order to promote healthy relationships and gender equality. Men Can Stop Rape provides a variety of solutions for men and ways to become involved such as through attending events, trainings, and presentations.

This is a great website because its main focus is to educate men and prevent violence against women. I found the "Strength campaign" to be very interesting because it is a campaign that can be implemented within many organizations. As I was reading through their campaign adds I noticed how they used the phrase, "Our Strength is Not for Hurting" which is used to show men that strength those not mean violence.

I'm an absolute advocate for men to speak out against violence towards women. I believe it is critical that men become allies for this cause because essentially men can influence male culture more than women can. If men begin to condemn violence towards women than the passive notion amongst men can change to one of proactive means. Men are also influential for younger males and may often be mimicked by these younger males, so if you practice what you preach it can really make a difference.

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.

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.

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 essay is useful in my research paper because it discusses the economical and ideological factors that led to the civil war in Guatemala. It discusses the role of the U.S in the movement as well.

This report is by the Comisón Para el Escalarecimiento Historico ( CEH) and it is a very valuable source for my research. It provides a historical framework of the causes of Guatemala's civil war and also information on the different ways that violence was systematized in Guatemala. This report also focuses on the violations of human rights that were comitted during this period and it focuses on the effects and causes of violence against women ( especifically rape ), which I am intrested in.

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.

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.

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.

Miller, Barbara D. 2001. "Female-Selective Abortion in Asia: Patterns, Policies, and Debates." American Anthropologist. 102(4): 1083-1095. This article discusses aspects of Asian culture that support son preference, the leading cause for sex-selective abortion and female infanticide. It is important to understand a culture's belief system in order to make sense of their communal actions. Miller, by her use of cultural anthropology, has helped me better understand not only Asian culture, but the global context to explain prenatal gender discrimination.

Malamuth, Neil., Briere, John. 1986. "Sexual Violence in the Media: Indirect Effects on Aggression Against Women." Journal of Social Issues 42(3):75-92 * Research done by Malamuth and Briere has shown links between violent and sexual images of women in mass media and the development of thought patterns of aggression and antisocial behavior. Within their research they tested men exposed to violent or sexual images of women in the media, as well as pornography. On such experiment was to test images in pornography men were shown three situations a rape with positive effects for the woman, a rape with negative effects for the woman, and consensual sex. The responses of the men were recorded. I find this study particularly interesting because it doesn't just show that erotic-aggressive images in pornography can cause aggression, but that it can actually alter thought patterns. This research provides a lot of information on how a culture can be formed thinking a certain way because of what they are exposed to.

Sylverstein, L. 1999. "The Evolutionary Origins of Male Violence Against Women" in Haraway & O'Neil (eds) What Causes Men's Violence Against Women? Sage Publications. This chapter is important, however in a secondary way. I will use this article to further supplant the points I wish to convey from the films I am using, most specifically with The Accused, and in part with Showgirls. I will use Sylverstein's points of the female/matriarchic oriented Bonobos in relation to the women of both films. I will discuss the parallels found between these bonding primates and their counterparts found within The Accused as portrayed in the unified fight for justice between Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) and Sarah Tobias (Jodi Foster). From Showgirls I will discuss the similarities of the primates violent tendencies as they relate to a slur against one of their own, as Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) defends and seeks vengeance for her friend Molly Abrams (Gina Ravera) - although this ideal of one woman protecting another is more fantasy than realism, especially in relation to the consequences. Again, this chapter will be more valuable to me in supplementing, rather than instigating, my ideas in relation to rape and how it affects the relationships amongst women.