Blog Post 21: How to change the Kairos of rape?

Today, the class talked about the factors that highlights rape culture throughout the semester. This includes best possible moments for rape to occur (Kairos). The class talked about routine Kairos, the Kairos that is created based on American culture such as drinking, partying and late night walking. Instructor point out that it’s important to disassemble the routine rape by education or bystander training. School girls could be trained to intervene the Kairos of rape such as calling the police or help victim escape. The instructor said it is possible for rape culture to change if there is a good timing for it to change. He gave example of interracial marriage, same sex marriage, and universal health care. These events all change at a moment, but no one did anything about them before. This shows that the right timing for change is necessary to alter the issue of rape.

Instructor suggests that people are starting to create kairotic moments that will help women turn the table around while addressing sexual assault. He suggests that people should change other social issues first in order to change the Kairos of rape, social issues like wage gap between men and women, and gender inequality. The instructor showed an example of an ad that shows about gender inequality and wage gap. The ad shows that a man getting money from a woman, she gave him 7.7 cent and he said it’s too little, she said it’s “women’s money.” This is an ad making fun of the social issue and gender inequality in the working place. This reminds me of the coke ad from 70s; the ad actually showed that the coke is only for men but not for women. Nowadays, the issue of gender inequality is less strong; people sort of being aware of the problem, but they just don’t have any strategies to solve it. In the working place too, women started to report when they get sexual assault. But back to 60s, no one really realized there is a problem with women because very few victims reported. The instructor said changing the Kairos of rape requires time; as the issue of gender inequality shrink, the issue of sexual assault may shrink too. In my view, rape rate may go down as a country acquires more gender equality, but as my previous paper talked about, growing gender equality actually can cause more sexual assault, because male dominated society doesn’t like it when women acquire equal power as men. This is why issue of rape is more severe in developed country because developed country has greater gender equality. But this is just one theory of the issue of sexual assault, it does not apply to all countries in the world; it certainly doesn’t have to apply to America, because America has other cultural factors that triggers rape.

The instructor then moved on to talk about how people might change the Kairos of rape. One way is to reduce people’s denial by training them to talk more about this issue. As the class mentioned before, American culture never really talk about rape. In order to change the Kairos of rape, American should overcome that silence they hold towards this topic. The more they talk about this issue the more feminist response they get and the more people are aware of this issue.

Another way is to change media content. This reminds me that media usually portray women being attacked in the dark, this make people think that women are not supposed to walk alone in the dark instead they should stay at home, while in fact being at home and throwing parties put women in more danger. So if media could change the way it portray sexual assault and ties it with reality, people may change the way they perceive sexual assault and put more efforts in preventing party rape.

Blog Post 20: Memory and Consent

Today the class talked about how memory affects people’s decision in rape. The class focused on a case that’s between a 35-year-old couple; the state cannot prove there is a intercourse or sexual assault between the couple because the wife is unable to remember whether she gave consent. The wife couldn’t even remember her own daughter’s name. The instructor suggests that if the elder woman has no memory of her daughter, she couldn’t possibly give consent. The class also said if the couple has had sex life before, it’s possible that the husband has forced the wife into sexual intercourse, but the state has found no trace of coercion or physical injury on the wife. In my opinion, it’s difficult to determine whether the consent is given because both the husband and the wife are old people, their inability to remember has blurred the matter whether consent is given.

The class has also talked about institutional memory and how institutional memory is always the same. This creates problem in the jury. When court decides whether the perpetrator is guilty, they always rely on the same set of policies or the same legal system, but not all cases can be estimated by the same judgment or legal standards. There are some cases that legal system cannot address or provide with fair judgments. The class also said the court system is problematic because of its rigidity. Court usually gets less information about people and take a long time to investigate because people are afraid to be recorded; they don’t want to be proven a liar so they don’t accept records. In order to change this problematic situation, the class suggests to reverse the system of the law, and to prove people innocent instead of guilty. The court should not only prove one defendant guilty but it should also prove that the other defendant innocent before making its final decision.

Lastly, the class talked about cultural memories and how cultural memory is as rigid as the institutional one. People tend to retrieve information based on their culture. The way culture is imprinted in their mind could be bias. For instance, people learned from culture that sexual assault is usually done by stranger. This conception is biased but is culturally constructed and passed through generation. Movie has repeatedly show a woman walking in the dark and gets stranger attack. Media has reinforced the way people normally think about sexual assault, but it does not always tell the truth. Nowadays people don’t think about acquaintance when they think about rape because their cultural memory tells them rape is done by a stranger. This idea could lead to victimization because women tend to avoid strangers but not their acquaintance, and perpetrators usually are acquaintance.

The instructor said technology replaced memory, now it’s very hard for people to remember anything today. To me this make it harder for people to solve cases of sexual assault because if victims can’t remember whether they are consensual, it’s hard for the justice system to decide whether the perpetrator is guilty, and police has to put into more investigation. Not just technology, sometimes the situation involves alcohol and drug using, these factors decrease people’s memory about the truth and make it difficult for people to remember what happened.

I think that if memory is such a big deal to determine rape, especially for cases between elderly people. It’s even more important for bystanders or family members to pay attention to what happened. If neighbors heard about anything, they should help remember what actually happened and if it really is not consensual then they should help report the case. Because if the sexual assault happened with victims of memory disability, it’s impossible for the victim to report the case or provide reliable testimony because they don’t have the ability to remember what happened.

Paper 3: Cultural Study on Sexual Assault

Anjie Zhao

Paper 3

April 20 2015

Cultural Study on Sexual Asssault：Comparison between US and other countries

The issue of rape is more serious in the United States comparing to non-Western or developing countries. Through comparing the US with different culture, researchers can find unique social traits that only exist in the United States. There are several cultural differences that explain why rape is rather serious in the US and not in Japan, including socialization (partying), media, and gender equality.

According to statistics, Japan has far less rape rate in comparison with the US; though both are developed country, US rape rate is 27 times more than Japan’s (Nationmaster, 2015). Research shows country like Japan remains unmotivated towards sex and intimate relationship. This is quite the opposite to the US, because sexuality is such a hot topic in the United States. Japanese people’s disinterest in sex may lead to the ultimate low number of rape, while US’s interest in sexuality can explain its high rape rate.

Rape in the US contains unique traits such as drug using, drinking and partying. These cultural do not exist in Japan because Japanese people do not party or use drugs. And it could be this lack of socialization lead to the Japanese "celibacy syndrome," which is a syndrome happened to Japanese young people; Japanese men and women stopped having sex because they are disinterested; they find there is no point in having sex, being in a relationship or starting a family (Haworth, 2013). A survey in 2011 found that over half of Japanese men and half of women at age of 18 to 34 aren’t in any kind of romantic relationship (Haworth, 2013). Another survey found out that one third the Japanese under 30 haven’t had any dating experience (Haworth, 2013). The “celibacy syndrome” has made Japanese men less masculine and less ambitious in career, instead it made women more independent and career-driven. A women interviewed said she found many Japanese men flinch when a woman is trying to touch them; this phenomenon also increases in women too (Haworth, 2013). Many Japanese women referred that they would not marry or have children because they don’t want to be the caretaker for both the baby and the husband (Haworth, 2013). Lack of socialization could be one factor that directs the “celibacy syndrome” and driven the unmotivated attitude towards sex, which lead to less sexual assault incidents as a result.

Party provides ground for American people to interact with each other. This motivates sex. Elizabeth Armstrong said, “sexual assault is a predictable outcome of a synergistic intersection of processes operating at individual, organizational, and interactional levels” (Armstrong, 2006). In other words, if there aren’t any organizational or interactional groups like party that brings in people to interact, there wouldn’t be any chances for sexual intercourse or party rape. It is socialization that brings people closer to each other and makes them want to have intimate act. Girls meet boys in a party and gets drunk and things happen. Japanese don’t have this kind of interaction between their kids. Their youth are raised in isolation; they shut themselves indoors and never thought about moving out from their family home until they reached 30 (Haworth, 2013). This is how Japanese boys and girls don’t know how to interact with each other, and they don’t feel necessary to interact because interaction is never part of their lives. In contrast, American youth are taught to hang out or hook around since they were little, so they feel the urge to create interaction and attend socializing events. And interaction requires drinking, dancing, drug using that could lead to potential sexual assault.

It is possible that Japanese unmotivated attitude in sex is tied with exposure to non-sexualized portrayals in the media. America and Japan uses different media contents (America with greater depiction on sexuality and Japan with less) to motivate society, this way creates greater distinction on sexuality between these two countries. People in US are motivated in sex because they are exposed to more sex-related contents in media, while Japanese people are de-activated in sex because Japanese media do not show a lot of sex-related contents; man and women were portrayed rather old-fashioned and less open and with more clothes on.

Research shows media has a big impact in shaping people’s perception towards rape in both countries. US media has the tradition of portraying human sexuality on screen; if you compare Japanese and American TV shows, American TV shows depict more fully naked women and men. Think about shows like Sex and the City (1998-2004), Veronica Mars (2004-2007), Vampire Diaries (2009), Game of Thrones (2011-15), and Masters of Sex (2013-15). These shows all have female characters showing their naked bodies more than one times. Think about shows that contains sex-oriented jokes, such as How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014) and Gossip Girl (2007-2012). Japanese never show naked women having sex in a day-time drama; fully naked is rare for a night-time Japanese drama. Japanese wouldn’t joke about sex in TV shows because sex is not part of their media culture; they often talked about ordinary subjects such as school, workforce, parenthood, and romantic relationship. Romantic depiction doesn’t contain much sexuality or sex-related portrayals; TV couples are shown barely kissing, or instead of showing sex, sex is either metaphorically said or hidden on the screen (Akita, 2005). For instance, Japanese romantic dramas like First Kiss (2007), Love Shuffle (2009), Nagareboshi (2010), Moon lovers (2010), and Love Neet (2012) barely shows characters kissing in the episodes and there are no signs for them taking off cloths or having sex. TV shows like Mou Ichido Kimi ni Propose (2012), Perfect Divorce (2013), MEOTOZENZAI (2013), Dososei (2014), though is about romantic relationship, is more focused on companionship and marriage relationship rather than sex. Similarly, shows like Mei-chan no Shitsuji (2009), kimi nitodoke (2010), Q10 (2010), Asuko March!(2011), and Shiritsu Bakaleya Koukou (2012) are focused on relationship but doesn’t show signs of blatant sex, rather male and female characters are shown hiding their feelings for each other. Characters are depicted shy for expressing their feelings; these shows also are more focused on schooling and friendship rather than relationship or sexuality.

Social cognitive theory suggests that is young people are frequently exposed to behaviors on TV, they are more likely to imitate that behavior in real life (Fisher, 2009). This suggests that both American and Japanese teens could develop similar behavioral traits as their TV programs depicted. If so, American youth are likely to imitate sex-related behaviors because sex on American TV programs is more frequently shown. Differently, Japanese teenagers are not likely to adopt sex-related behaviors because they are not frequently exposed to sex and sexuality on TV, because their TV programs do not contain sex-related contents. Rather, Japanese teens (both girls and boys) would behave in a timid or less expressive way when it comes to commitment in a relationship, because this trait of youth holding back their feelings for others has been broadcast on TV over past decades. They would not have open sex in order to show their feelings for their spouses because they have never been taught by social media to do so. If Japanese people are become less expressive when it comes to relationship and interaction, they have less probability to engage in an intimate act and less likely to commit rape and sexual assault, until they get old. Oppositely, American youth are motivated by US media to interact and experience sufficient sex life, thus they are more likely to commit sex crimes at early age.

According to Fisher’s article, a national survey tested about media’s impact on teenage viewers shows 70% of teens (age from 15 to 17) said they have learned “a lot” or “some” knowledge about sexuality and romantic relationship (Fisher, 2009). This survey shows many teenage TV viewers tend to learn about sexuality from media characters. US media portray man and woman as sexually attractive. Again, this portrayal shapes American people’s perception towards reality. Both boy and girl would like to become more sexually attractive in real life. This explains why American adolescent girls would want to put on make ups, and dress provocatively and being thin, because through heavy exposure to TV they have learned that look appealing could attract a man’s attention. Similarly, boys would want to look more masculine and charming in order to get a girl’s attention. TV provides cultural construction that guarantees the Kairos for rape. In other words, if American man and women don’t look so sexually attractive, they wouldn’t fit into each other’s standards, because TV has taught them that to look attractive is to ask for sex. This socially constructed idea may result in high probability of rape among young people in the US.

 Differently, Japanese media shows very few sexually attractive portrayals since 2005, rather they portray both men and women as fully dressed, women as strong and independent women more often in TV shows and movies. For instance, Japanese directors realize that many of their audience are women, in order to attract more women to watch the show, they started using female protagonists since 1920s (Iwamura, 1994). Qualities in these Japanese female heroes are toughness, strength and ability to handle problem (Iwamura, 1994). These empowered female characters are found in shows like the Discarnates (1988), Erai Tokoro ni Totsuide Shimatta (2007), Atsuhime (2008), Seigi no Mikata (2008), and Boss (2009). According to social cognition, female empowerment on TV could alter Japanese women’s perception of reality and make them more ambitious and less interested in sex and relationship. Because Japanese women are frequently exposed to powerful female figures on TV, they hold more endurance to this idea that women are strong and independent. This way media can aggravate the “celibacy syndrome” (disinterest in sex and relationship) because it encourage women to choose career and independence over marriage and sex. As Japanese women don’t get to interact with men, it decreases the possibility for sexual assault and victimization. Media explains why Americans are having issue of rape while Japanese are having celibacy syndrome.

Lastly, gender equality, and financial status could play a role that distinguishes rape that happened in the US and in Japan. Russell’s blacklash hypothesis (1975) suggests that when men’s authority is threatened by a women’s empowerment, they tend to regain their dominance by use of violence (Don, 2013). It is found that Latin America has greater sexual violence due to its male dominated society structure (Don, 2013). The United States also has a male dominated culture; this explains why American men dislike it when they see women were empowered and succeed them. Differently, Japan maybe less male dominated than the US. As mentioned earlier, due to celibacy syndrome, Japanese men have become less career-driven, less dominant and more in door; instead women become more independent, ambitious and outdoor. This trait results in women don’t want to be in a relationship and depend on men, and men don’t care about that either. This trait is the opposite to a male-dominated society. If Japanese society becomes more female dominant, people in the society become used to this trait. Japanese men will hold more endurance towards this social system so they wouldn’t break social taboo and go after a woman.

It is found that developed country has higher rate of sexual violence than developing country (Don, 2013). This is because developed countries have more gender equality between men and women, as said earlier men don’t want women to surpass them and become the dominator so they go after women who are middle class or higher class, more gender equality means more men are unhappy about women succeeding their supremacy.  Thus more men in developed countries try to sexually assault women with good financial status, this creates more sexual assault. Differently, developing country has less gender equality and men and women take separate roles (with women being the nurturer and men being the dominator), very few women would break their gender role and try to surpass men, thus it gives less motivation for men to suppress women by using force. Thus creates less sexual violence in the country. If the US is more developed than Japan by comparing their GDP per capita, it is possible US society has more gender equality than Japan, thus has more sexual violence than Japan. And this is consistent with the statistics; US rape rate is way higher than Japan’s.

In conclusion, different cultural traits could explain why rape is a big issue for the US but not as nearly serious in Japan.

Citation

Haworth, A. (2013). Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex? Theguardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex

Country vs country: Japan and United States compared: Crime stats. (2003-2015). Nationmaster. Retrieved from http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Japan/United-States/Crime

Don, S. C. (2013). Test of Impacts of Gender Equality and Economic Development on Sexual Violence. Journal of Family Violence, 28, 603-610. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8e24af04-42d9-48b0-999c-6b0459e33796%40sessionmgr112&vid=5&hid=128

Armstrong, E. A. (2006). Sexual Assault on Campus: A Multilevel, Integrative Approach to Party Rape. JSTOR, 53(4), 484-499. Retrieved from http://www-personal.umich.edu/~elarmstr/publications/Armstrong%20Hamilton%20and%20Sweeney%202006.pdf

Fisher, D. A. (2009). Televised Sexual Content and Parental Mediation: Influences on Adolescent Sexuality. Media Psychology, 12(2), 121-147. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=19&sid=de5c54c7-af16-49e3-8c95-3ad649cd2d77%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=39880476

Akita, K. (2005). Cuteness: The Sexual Commodification of Women in the Japanese Media. In Carilli, T., & Campbell, J. (Eds.), Women and the Media: Diverse Perspectives (pp. 44-46).University Press of America.

Iwamura, R. (1994).Letter from Japan: From girls who dress up like boys to trussed‐up porn stars ‐ Some of the contemporary heroines on the Japanese screen. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 7(2), 109-130.

Blog Post 19: Commonplace for Kairos of Rape

Today the class talked about how commonplace influence the Kairos of rape. The class defines commonplaces as connections with any argument or connections with audience in the moment. Commonplaces could influence how we perceive the situation. For instance, in the situation of rape people tend to blame women for being victimized because they perceive women as vulnerable, thus they expect women to protect themselves. Self-empowerment and vulnerability are commonplaces. They create connections to the argument that victims are to blame. If people don’t usually think about commonplaces they wouldn’t have arrived at the conclusion of victim-blame. The reading indicates multiple commonplaces that people needs to pay close attention to, including the thought of women are passive, women’s self-determination, women’s denial of fear about body threat, people’s believe in gender equality, and denial of incident in public space.

According to the article, women tend to think that rape usually happen between strangers, but in fact most of the sexual assault happened with people they know. This belief creates danger for women because they choose to stay at home instead of walking on street, while actually most rapes happen at home. Similarly, denial also causes danger. If women deny their fear about rape, they wouldn’t care to look at this problem and focus on protection. This leaves them vulnerable and easy for attack. Again if they deny that their male friends are going to rape them, it creates danger and increase the possibility for rape. Sometimes, women, especially teenage girls are naïve, they think that their male friends look kind so they must be kind person; these teen girls haven’t truly know what kind of friends they are seeing before jumping into relationship. This leaves them no protection and easy to be deceived by perpetrators.

Students suggest that in order to alter people’s perception about commonplaces, they should pay close attention or be aware of their surroundings. For instance, if a woman is in a party with male friend, she needs to be aware the behavior of their behaviors; if they are inviting her upstairs she should not rush to accept. If some guy friends try to touch her she should see what their intentions are, instead of denying the harassment. Victims should never decide that they are the one to blame even though they are women and they appear to be vulnerable. Instead, they should blame the perpetrator because it’s the perpetrator who assaulted them.

The class suggests that information is a weapon against sexual assault. Women need information about the situation that constructs rape. If women know that most of the day rape happened at public place or at home, they would try to avoid confronting a guy in these situations, or at least avoid sexual intercourse in these situations. People also need to look beyond some cultural notions (commonplaces) such as women are vulnerable, women dress attractively, and can’t drink to really see the nature of sexual assault. They should be aware that some commonplaces are social stereotypes that work to support victim-blames and persecute women.

In my view, to change people’s beliefs about Kairos is an applicable way to resolve the issue of rape. But I feel like commonplaces are culturally constructed, thus is hard to change its dimension. I know that some country holds different perceptions about rape. Asian countries actually pay more pity to the victims because they don’t believe a woman is to blame when she is raped. But I feel like sometimes Many American teens are culturally resistant, they don’t want to learn from other countries and just hold on to their own culture. For instance, American people value less femininity than Asian countries because they value masculinity more; in addition, they value competition over cooperation. This trends leave the minority groups (like women) little place in the society. This is habit to be deeply attached to their own culture sometimes keep American people away from different alternatives. They don’t see the better way to resolve the situation because they never know there is a better way.

Blog Post 18: How Culture Influence Rape/ Different Countries Comparison

On Thursday we talked about culture. The reading mainly shows that people shouldn’t blame culture for rape, instead they should blame the perpetrator. But the class discussed how culture does play a part in rape because culture gives permission to the rapist to commit sexual assault. The class also watched a short Youtube video about sexual harassment in Miami. The video shows that in Miami, guys harass women all the time on the street. This video can show that guys from Miami are culturally constructed beings; they harass women on the street because American culture has taught them to behave this way. As an internationals student, I realize that rape could be a unique phenomenon for America. Though many other poor countries also have similar issue, it’s more like due to poverty and illiteracy rather than culture. For instance, rape is also a issue in India because India is a developing country; government is more focused on economy rather than social crisis (including rape) (Bhowmick, 2013). But India actually has high conviction rate because many people report things when they see it, unlike America. Again, America is culturally constructed to be insensitive about rape; they never speak about rape because they never speak about sex. Differently, Indian people hate how rape has brought a bad reputation to their country thus they try to talk about this issue in order to solve it. In addition, the statistics show that rapes a mostly conducted by strangers in India, but in America most rapes are conducted by people they know.

The issue of rape is found different in different countries. According to Wikipedia, the report of world rape for 2008 shows rape rate for different countries: 2.0 per 100,000 in India, 1.2 per 100,000 in Japan, 3.6 per 100,000 in Morocco, 4.6 rapes per 100,000 in Bahrain, 12.3 per 100,000 in Mexico, 24.1 per 100,000 in United Kingdom, 28.6 per 100,000 in United States, 66.5 per 100,000 in Sweden, and world's highest rate of 114.9 rapes per 100,000 in South Africa. This statistic shows that though America has a high rape rate compares to other countries, it doesn’t have the highest rape rate. The highest is South Africa, and the second highest is Sweden. I feel like rape in different countries is caused by different Kairos and different rape culture. South Africa has the highest rape rate because of poverty and disease. Unlike Americans, South African people are under pressure, they want to solve the problem but they don’t have the power and money to do so. Differently, American people lived better life yet are careless about rape; they have the power to avoid it but their party culture and culture of sexuality allows them to rape. I could say the situation of rape in Africa is a lot worse than situation in the United States. So I guess every country has different Kairos that construct the issue of rape, thus rape in America can be a unique cultural construction. Rape culture in America is mainly triggered by American’s unique way of living such as drinking, partying, night life and drug using, not poverty.

Different country also requires different solutions for rape. For instance, Africa’s rape is originated from poverty thus it’s harder to solve than culturally-oriented rape. This is because the country has to take a long time for it to be fully developed into a country with strong medical and legal system. On the contrary, American’s rape is culturally constructed, it also takes a longer time to change the rape culture, but it must be shorter in time than to change African’s rape problem. Because changing a culture takes years while changing a country takes centuries.

Source:

http://world.time.com/2013/11/08/why-rape-seems-worse-in-india-than-everywhere-else-but-actually-isnt/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics

http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1906000,00.html

Blog Post 17：Feminine Politics and Rape Prevention

On Tuesday, the class still talked about how to prevent rape by language, theory and feminist politics. Students suggest some aspects of language where rape is shown. For instance, people tend to convince themselves that rape is ok. The instructor suggests that in order to change the rape culture, people need to change their language. Students said human language is historical based because it exists in old religious texts like Bible. This sort of caught my interest because I know that bible depicts only one God and he is a man. All other female goddesses are less powerful than him. Yet this context didn’t say why God can’t be woman, or why female Goddesses are less powerful than male. To me, the Christian religion might enforce sexism, a concept that fundamentally relates our modern rape culture. People learned that man is the dominator throughout generations. If people want to change the way rape culture is designed, they should alter the context of how women are depicted in history. This part is extremely difficult because it may alter people’s tradition and a lot of people don’t like it. Like for instance, in Christian religion, they should be able to say that God is a woman because woman can be as powerful as man, but Christian religion is not just a doctrine but also a tradition, Christians worship their God and are used to the idea God is a guy. To change their religion would be to disrupt their lives and everything they believed in. Loyal Christians might treat change as an anti-religious movement.

Not just in religion, women are historically subordinate to men. Back to the history, women are treated as prostitutes and slaves. In 1970s, men hold the right to own properties but women don’t. Women also don’t have the right to vote. In post-modern eras, women don’t go to school or work; their traditional roles are housewives, wives, and mother. All they should think about is to find a husband and marry. Also, women are expected to stay home and be the caretaker. Women who play sports are considered non-traditional and manly. The reading suggests that maybe women should abandon feminine stereotypes and be more independent and strong. I think this idea is debatable. If women abandon their feminine traits like their traits of being a mom, they can choose work over children. This aspect actually is growing bigger in modern society. For instance, Many Japanese women today choose not to have children or even marry because they don’t want to be the caretaker. And the Japanese population is going down because women refused to have kids. If they become a mother, they have to play the role of caretaker, because there’s not way their husbands will be the caretaker. This can show that some feminine stereotypes still exists today and favored by society. Society doesn’t encourage men to be the caretaker so women have to take that role; this tradition empowers men while dissatisfies women, because women also wants to be ambitious and strong, but they can’t be when they have to take care of a child. Society still keeps teaching women to be feminine through commercialization. Media makes women think if they wear make ups and be sexually attractive, men will come and talk to them. American women started to learn how to dress up or how to do make-ups at an early age; this cultural aspect is very different from China. If you go to China, you will find that very few Chinese women do make-ups while in high school or even in college, because society doesn’t expect women to show their attractiveness in a sexy way. Instead of being overly feminine and sexy, Chinese society expects women to look natural. They don’t have to put on a party dress and heavy make-ups or go to a bar and get drunk; that’s not how Chinese people define “sexy.” If a Chinese girl get too drunk or wear a really short skirt and flirt with men all the time, her parents and friends will perceive it as unhealthy or unconstrained. So I guess, if American women want to abandon their feminine characters when diminishing rape culture, they should also change the way they look. But again American society doesn’t want women look natural; they expect women to look sexy and get a man and have babies in order to keep their civilization from extinction. 

Blog Post 16: Rape Prevention

On Thursday, the class talked about how to prevent rape. I find the ways posted by Elizabeth very interesting. According to her article, one of the preventions for rape is not to stop the rapist by using physical resistance, because physical resistance could anger the rapist more and increase the possibility for physical violence. Instead, a woman should use verbal language to distract the rapist and change his mind. I think this is actually a very clever way of resolving the situation of rape. As the article suggests, man rape for different reasons; they either have sexual fantasy about the woman or are angry with the woman. If the man is fantasizing about the woman and forcing himself on her, the woman could use conversation to show him she is not the idealistic woman for him, so it turns his desires off. If he does not fantasize her anymore, he wouldn’t want to have sex with her. I think it’s also interesting sometimes shouting for help can stop a rapist’s movement. I think shouting gives a temporary shock to the rapist because it makes him think someone might hear him and break in to help the victim; this gives the victim the opportunity to push him off and run away. To me, it may be more likely for the rapist to let go if he fears to be caught, unless he is sure nobody will hear them.

The article also shows that it’s important for women to sense the man’s sexual intent and escape early. But I feel like some men are very quiet and calm, and it’s difficult for woman to read their facial expression. Especially if a woman is interested in the man, she will let her guard down and open her heart to him, this puts her in a dangerous situation. If the rapist is clever, he might seduce her into sexual intercourse by manipulating her emotion. So I guess women also need to have good self-control on their mind and emotion in order to avoid being taken advantage. But if the incident took place at a bar, it will be unlikely a woman can stay clear after a few drinks with a guy, so it might also be important she doesn’t get herself too drunk to know what the guy is planning after her.

I think a woman should know herself enough to get in touch with a guy. This is because man and woman have different ways to communicate their thoughts, which could cause misunderstanding and conflict. For me, I feel like I always irritates a guy when I was talking to him, so I know I should probably avoid being in a private situation with a guy alone because I know I can’t handle that situation once he gets provoked. But I know for some women, they know how to handle a guy when he is angry, they are mature enough to sit in a bar and hanging out with a guy. But for girls like me, they should know they are not so experienced with a guy and back off.

Another article posted by Elizabeth is about the traits of serial rapists versus single victim rapists. The article shows that serial rapists don’t try to kiss their victims before raping them, instead they threat their victims by weapon. In addition, serial rapists make conscious decisions before rape while single person rapists often do not (because they are drunk). This article suggests that it’s harder to avoid serial rapists than one time rapists because serial rapists are way more complex. Most girls don’t believe that their male friends are serial killers until they found out that they are. If serial rapists are more likely to disguise themselves to be good people, then maybe it’s important for women to pay double attention to guy friends who they just met, and don’t trust a guy by his appearance. Women should know they could trust a guy before hanging out with him.

Blog post 15: Rape Joke and Male Gender Roles

On Tuesday, the class discussion focused on how hyper masculinity is constructed. The students talked about how boys are taught to be man and not cry. The instructor suggests that rape could be one way for men to prove their manhood. The class also talked about how parents and society shaped people’s personality. The students said parents never address the issue of rape to their children; that gives children the freedom to commit sexual misconduct. Or when parents do address the issue of sexual assault, they barely give the good reason to their kids why they shouldn’t commit rape because parents find it hard to talk about rape or sex in front of their children.

In my opinion, the wrong way of educating a child could disturb the child’s growth or distort their personality once they grow up. If parents don’t inform their kids why it’s bad to rape or force a woman into sexual misconduct, children will not be persuaded enough to listen or control their own behavior. In addition, if parents force their boys to not cry, it is also a form of distortion to the kids’ personality. The suppression to boys’ emotion may lead to disobedience and aggression, and this effect could last through their adulthood. A boy who suffered emotional suppression may attain the mind of a sociopath once he grows up. This is because his pressure to attain all the emotion within and not to unleash is great enough to alter his personality. Nowadays, people usually find woman pay more compassion towards things in their lives than men. Women are more emotional and humane maybe because they have more emotional freedom since they are little girls. Similarly, men are more cold and indifferent when facing human cruelty because they are trained to be unemotional since they are young. So if men intended to rape a woman, it is not only due to lack of self-constrain, but also because they are raised to behave manly (to be indifferent and unemotional).

The class also talked about the Kairos when a man offers a woman a drink. Students said it’s hard for woman to refuse a man in this situation because they would have got the drink before even getting a chance to say “No.” I think woman are also responsible for controlling this situation because they are never taught how to refuse a invite, rather they are taught to accept a invite. Students said if a man said he wants to talk to the girl instead of offering a drink, the girl would think that he is crappy because this is not how communication works; if he is interested in her he must have offered a drink. The way that girls expect man to offer a drink to them and then accept the drink is a socially constructed expectation. If girls' way of thinking are not so rooted within the culture, they would not assume the guy is crappy if he is trying to talk to them. Likewise, a guy would think the girl is weird if she doesn’t accept the drink, because again this is how people communicate in the society. So in order to disturb the Kairos of rape, men and women both need to change their communicative behaviors to begin with.

The class also talked about how society often make sex and rape a joke, and how this worsens the issue of sexual assault. One students in class said “the more we make it a joke, the more we think it’s ok.” And I feel like it’s true that people hold more endurance to the issue of rape even if it happens all the time, but they don’t consciously aware that they are making the issue of rape worse by keep joking on it. Especially in the media, people see a lot of example of TV shows joking about sex and rape. For instance, I remember in one episode of How I Met Your Mother, Barney said “all girls are a pinas.” In another episode, he and Marshall actually bet on touching Lily’s boobs. And almost every episode Barney is chasing after some random female targets. These behaviors or comments may seem funny on TV, but they contain sexual oriented offence to women. Yet it’s hard for audience to think about offence or sexual harassment during the moment of the entertainment. It’s important for people to reduce sexually oriented jokes on media and raise awareness of the seriousness of rape in order to alleviate the issue. But to me, this is hard to do because many people love entertainment; they wouldn’t want producers to take out sexually oriented jokes because they are funny.

Blog Post 14: How language shape the rape culture

In class we talked about how language changes our perceptions about rape. Our culture shapes people’s assumption and influence how they perceive the victimization. People’s thinking and use of syllogism tend to make them ignore how women were suffered during sexual assault and focus on victim blames. For instance, syllogisms focus on reasoning, if the reasons fit into what happened, it must be true, like if I say “the victim is to blame because she shouldn’t got herself drink; if she didn’t want it to happen, she should avoid drinking.” The use of syllogism in this line makes the argument seem truthful, yet this argument merely reflects one aspect of the incident. The argument “victim is to blame because she is drunk” is just one assumption of what really happened. It largely ignores the aspects of perpetrator’s indiscretion. Syllogism and American language is culturally constructed and involves cultural notion of gender. When people think about who shouldn’t drink in the situation of rape, they tend to say women instead of men because men are culturally portrayed as drinkers, this is why the female victims are often blamed for drinking and the male perpetrators are not. One student in class mentioned that when a guy sexually assault a woman on the bus, police tend to use excuses for the guy such as “he is just drink, or he doesn’t know what he is doing, nothing really happened.” American language can express cultural ideas that convince people what is true and what is not. But drinking cannot be excuses for the guy’s behavior and the consequences he has caused.

In class, someone said culture has constrained people’s identity and force them into something they are not. I think this idea is interesting because it shows how people are turned into cultural beings. If American culture is only defined by one set of rules, everyone has to fit into those rules and this limits diversity and change. Like in class someone gave an example of class division by culture; white working man always gets better job than woman and black people. This example can show that minorities like woman and colored groups cannot fit into culturally defined standards for better jobs because they are not man because they are not viewed as eligible as man to be in better positions. If the rape culture always ignores the feminist minority, it’s hard for people to see how women were suffered under sexual assault.

I think it’s also interesting that the instructor said American culture never talk about rape. This is because people have to talk about sex in order to talk about rape, yet no man in the society would ask if they could have sex with a female partner. American culture encourages people to be indirect when it comes to sex. This is why men do not ask if they can have sex with a woman, rather they assume they can have sex with a woman by looking at her dress and makeups, and how luring she is. Not all culture encourages man to assume if they could have sex with a woman. Likewise, not all culture teaches woman to lure a man into bed by dressing in an open way. Media plays a big role in shaping a country’s culture. In American TV shows, viewers can see women dress in miniskirt, and playing with their hair to get a man’s attention. In addition, American TV shows also shows naked man and woman having sex. In Chinese TV show however, very few scenes with actors or actress taking off their cloth. Chinese TV shows and Japanese TV shows also shows women dress in a way less exposed or attractive than women from American TV show. If man and woman learn about their culture from social media, it’s not hard to explain why Chinese men are less sexually activate towards their female partner than American men, because Chinese social media rarely portray man as naked or as sexually activate. Chinese TV shows also rarely contain roles like playboys throughout the past. Thus, in order to change the Kairos of rape, maybe American TV should eliminate some extremely sex oriented or rape oriented depictions.

Paper 2: Case study on assault against black woman: Kairos, racism, and power dynamic

Engl 460

Anjie Zhao

Paper2 draft

3-21-2015

A case about police abuse, racism and abuse to authority

Daniel Ken Holtzclaw, a police officer from Oklahoma City, was charged for sexually assaulting seven different African American women (Flatow, 2014). According to the judge, Holtzclaw researched and stalked his victims before rape (Flatow, 2014). His abuse of power included threatening to arrest his victims for sexual batter and obscene exposure (CROCKETT JR, 2014). Holtzclaw’s sister created a Facebook site to sell T-shirts with words like "Free the Claw" and "#JusticeForDanielHoltzclaw." She wanted to raise money and help her brother get away with legal charge; so far this page has received 500 likes. Holtzclaw’s sister also created a GoFundMe site and planned to raise 100,000 dollars to help her brother. She has already raised 7,390 dollars. Holtzclaw’s family also joined the campaign against Holtzclaw’s charge. This case is shaped due to two Kairos. The Kairos for black woman is the history of racism and slavery. The Kairos for the white police is police authority and power dynamic. These two Kairos intertwine together and constructs the complexity of this case.

This case is a good example for racism against black woman. Police’s sexual assault on black women requires historical context of slavery (Yolande, 2014). Yolande said “While legal slavery has ended, the rape and sexual torture of Black women and the justification for this torture still continue” (Yolande, 2014). Slavery left American people the memory of colonist domination on black woman. It is possible for modern generation to absorb or imitate based on the way black women were mistreated and enslaved. Slave owners and colonists mistreated their black slaves by holding historical stereotypes and disrespectful morality against black women (Yolande, 2014). American slavery proposed black woman to be objects or animals that lacks ability to make decisions of their own (Yolande, 2014). Back in the days of slavery, assaulting black woman was not considered rape because black woman were not viewed as legal individual (Yolande, 2014). In Holtzclaw’s case, the perpetrator may select his targets based on these historical depictions of slavery. Maybe in Holtzclaw’s subconscious he knows black women has been tormented by white man or always has been. The thinking of black women are slaves motivates him to find black woman and assault them.

What if Holtzclaw’s sexual abuse is also based on a master and slave relationship? According to Angela Davis’s article, Davis said slavery relied on sexual abuse, which he defines not as an expression of man’s sexual urge, but an urge to control; white slave owner believes that they have the right to own black female slaves as their whole property (Davis). It’s possible Holtzclaw treated his targets the way white masters treated their black slaves, seeing the fact all his targets are black women; instead of picking white woman as targets, who he perceive to have more power (because historically white woman has never been slaves), he chose to rape the easier target, black woman. The way that he researched on these woman, their backgrounds, and followed them before sexually assaulting them shows that he is someway a control freak; he likes to know these woman so he could have better control of them before rape, this way he will make sure these woman can’t escape. These behaviors were similar to the conducts of a slave master because slave master never let his slaves make any decisions. Black woman’s social image and vulnerability causes more risk of them being persecuted, and gives Holtzclaw the chance to take advantage of this weakness. The more Holtzclaw threatens these women, the more he retains his hyper-masculine power, the more dominant he is.

The fact that public is more favorable to Holtzclaw reveals racial stereotypes and the white privilege. The GoFundMe page shows, “with the support of family, friends and the community, Daniel Holtzclaw will be vindicated and justice will prevail” (CROCKETT JR, 2014). Through comparison with past cases, it seems white community would rather trust the myth of bad black woman and black men are rapist while considering the rape of black woman (Davis). In a murder charge in 1975, a young black woman was accused of killing a white guard in North Carolina jail after he threatened and raped her (Davis). She claimed that she killed him in self-defense; her argument was widely supported by the local black community, but no white community was mentioned (Davis). This case is similar to Holtzclaw’s case because it also shows how white community either doesn’t believe in the female defendant’s claim or doesn’t want to support her argument. Another case from 1970s also can show the same racist opinion; a black man called Delbert Tibbs was false charged of raping a white woman, yet few white woman and anti-rape groups were willing to help him (Davis). Just like Holtzclaw’s case, this case can show that white community is more likely to trust the white defendant instead of black one, and thus they give less support or protection to black defendant.

This comparison shows these cases all faced racial discrimination against black people. These racist stereotypes construct community culture and shapes white people’s perception and trust level about black people. White observers in these cases always stand up for white defendant because they are never trust enough to support black defendants simply because they believe black are bad. In the case of Holtzclaw, the perpetrator is a white man, thus has the privilege to gain trust from white community; this provides an advantage for him to get away with conviction and charge. As previously said, his family, friends and community can raise money to bail him out because they believe that it’s false charge and he doesn’t deserve to be in jail (CROCKETT JR, 2014). This provides a relative disadvantage for the black victims; because they are black woman, they hold less society support since the society would rather believe that black women are bad.

It is also possible that Holtzclaw committed sexual assault because he thinks he can since he is a white police, he has the power to force woman into unwilling sexual activity. He threatened to arrest the victims unless they expose themselves to him (CROCKETT JR, 2014). This action is provided by power and authority, if Holtzclaw is not a police officer, he does not hold the power to arrest anyone, he may not be bold enough to threaten his victims. According to Timothy Maher, police authority and frequent contact with public provides opportunity for police sexual misconduct (Maher, 2003). As a police member, Holtzclaw not only has the authority to arrest people but also has the opportunity to investigate on people without consent. Isolated contact with public provides him the chance to look for his targets. He could take advantage of any black woman he spotted while walking around and claiming that he is on duty. Walker and IrIbeck’s study (2002) shows that police officer tends to stop the car for traffic violation when the drivers are female, but this is just an excuse to sexually harass the driver (Maher, 2003). This past study proves that police does take advantage of their authority in order to get close to woman. According to the news report, Holtzclaw does assaults his target while on patrol (CROCKETT JR, 2014). Accusers said Holtzclaw frequently stopped black woman between ages of 34 to 58 (CROCKETT JR, 2014). And he profiled black woman as drug users, prostitutes and sex workers, but none of these women fits into the typical age for prostitution or drug use (Yolande, 2014). Holtzclaw has used “on duty,” and “profiling” as excuse for sexual assault. He could easily threaten a black woman without being overheard, because the victim may feel scared or act less expressive while being stopped and questioned by a police officer. The victims may also question their own problem before getting suspicious about the officer because his police authority has made him indisputable.

Police members also may cover up their colleague’s misconducts in order to protect department reputation. The study conducted by Barker (1978) examined police members’ perception on their colleague’s sexual misconduct in a small city department (Maher, 2003). This study shows both civilian police and police officers in the department believe that many of their colleagues had sex while on duty (Maher, 2003). If more than one police from the same department have committed sexual misconduct, they are more likely to cover up for each other. Two studies investigating police sexual violence via court and media (Kraska and Kappeler, 1995, and McGurrin and Kappeler, 2002) found out they lack the state officials’ response (Maher, 2003). This finding suggests that police sexual violence was encouraged by institution and police secrecy (Maher, 2003). According to Reuss-Ianni (1983), the code of police secrecy does not allow police officers to talk about the detail of other police’s behavior during shift (Maher, 2003). Police holds authority and power, so they get certain bypass from the government or the police department. If this is true, in Holtzclaw’s case the perpetrator could take advantage of government support in order to get away with legal charge. As long as police department denies that he did it, it’s hard for people to find evidence against him. This gives him the power to lay a hand on black victims.

The study by Kappeler (1998) shows that most police department has rules and policy that control police’s behavior, but there are still few exceptions. Some areas’ police departments do not have formal policy regarding police sexual abuse or police sexual misconduct (Maher, 2003). This study shows that it is possible that police departments have no strict regulation on police misconduct. This study also suggests that lack of regulation or policy has result in police sexual misconduct. In Holtzclaw’s case, Holtzclaw may have committed sexual assault because he knew there are no specific regulations or punishment for sexual assault in his department. He wouldn’t fear his sexual misconduct is found out by someone in the department because there are no laws that regulate his behavior. The lack of regulation on police sexual misconduct may spoil Holtzclaw and make him think that it’s ok to commit sexual misconduct, because in this case he is more likely to believe that he won’t get caught. This may lead to more victimization or him committing more sexual misconduct; this assumption explains why his behavior was not reported until the 7^th victim.

Due to police authority or police suppression, it is less likely for victims to report comparing to cases not involving police sexual abuse. According to multiple research conducted by Kappeler (2002 and 1995), victims of police sexual assault fear to be retaliated, fear not being believed or blamed, thus they choose not to report (Maher, 2003). It is natural for victims to think that they won’t get believed because they are reporting to police department when they were assaulted by someone within the department. If I tie this study into Holtzclaw’s case, the news shows that several victims dare to come forward only after the 7^th victim reported sexual assault. Evidently, the previous victims are afraid of consequences while accusing a police officer, that’s why they don’t come forward.

In conclusion, Holtzclaw’s case is mainly contributed by two factors: historical concepts of slavery and police authority. These two factors work together to pressure the black female victims. According to Yolande, black woman is more likely to be victimized than white woman even though the white on black cases occurs much less than black on white (Yolande, 2014). People shouldn’t ignore sexual assault against black woman just because these cases are largely obscure; it is very likely more black victimization go underreported than white victimization. In order to change the Kairos that creates black victimization, state officials should set up solid standards for governing police behavior, and more victims should come forward in order to raise awareness of sexual assault against black woman.

Source

Yolande M. S., & Tomlinson, Ph.D. (2014). INVISIBLE BETRAYAL: POLICE VIOLENCE AND THE RAPES OF BLACK WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES. Women’s All Points Bulletin. Retrieved from http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/ushrnetwork.org/files/36-police-wapb.pdf

Davis, A. Rape, Racism and the Myth of the Black Rapist. Rapereliefshelter. Retrieved from http://www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca/sites/default/files/imce/Rape,%20Racism%20%26%20Myth%20of%20Black%20Rapist_A%20Davis.pdf

Flatow, N. (2014). Cop Charged With Sexually Assaulting 7 Black Women Released From Jail. thinkprogress.org. Retrieved from http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/09/06/3564082/cop-who-allegedly-assaulted-7-black-women-released-from-jail/

Hutchinson, E. O. (2014). Where's the outrage over Oklahoma cop's assault on Black women? Chicago Defender. Copyright Real Times, Inc. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/ethnicnewswatch/docview/1566202343/22D287DBF8404049PQ/33?accountid=14902

CROCKETT JR. S. A. (2014). Officer Charged With Raping 8 Black Women Finds Support Online. Theroot. Retrieved from http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/09/officer_charged_with_raping_8_black_women_finds_support_online.html

Maher, T. M. (2003). POLICE SEXUAL MISCONDUCT: OFFICERS' PERCEPTIONS OF ITS EXTENT AND CAUSALITY. Criminal Justice Review (Georgia State University), 28(2), p.355-381. Retrieved from http://cjr.sagepub.com/content/28/2/355.full.pdf+html

Blog Post 13: Chapter 8, pathos, instrinsic and extrinsic proofs and community authority

On Tuesday students in class talked about how pathos shapes their perception towards rape culture. The class talked about how can people understand victim’s feeling and pay sympathy about it. Personally, I feel like it’s hard for people to know what victim is experiencing and feeling sympathetic about it if the incident did not happen around them. For example, if someone’s grandfather died in the neighborhood, the community at least would pay condolence to his family. But if the same incident happened on the other side of the world, it’s hard for anyone to be aware of the incident, not to say feeling anything about it. It’s not happening around me why would I care? Same idea, if rape happened in Arabia instead of American, people would question whether or not they should intervene and being concerned about it. It’s not inside of our country, so why should I care? I feel like bystanders tend to expect other bystanders to intervene instead of themselves. This indifference tend to play out between strangers too; I don’t know her why should I help her; or I feel sorry for this victim but we don’t know each other, should I intervene on an emotional level when it’s really not my business? People tend to think it’s weird to console a total stranger when consolation is supposed to be done by intimate partner such as family and friends. In my opinion, people shouldn’t expect everyone to be considerate because there is a sense of selfishness rooted in their culture. Americans like to be independent and they do not expect themselves to take care of others because everyone is supposed to be taking care of themselves. Pathos and sympathy maybe a culturally constructed factor; when the society expect people to self-govern, people learn to respect each other’s independence, thus are less likely to mind each other’s business. In order to change people’s indifference towards other’s victimization, the society should begin to expect more dependence instead of autonomy.

In addition the class also discussed about extrinsic proofs and internal proofs and how they affect people’s reaction regarding rape culture. One student in class said being in class is more of an extrinsic motivation because extrinsic tends to focus on the outside or appearance and does not solve the core issue, class only encourage us to talk about the issue of rape, but doesn’t really teach us how to solve the problem. In contrast, social works or social engagements are instrinsic proofs that make real progress on helping the victims. Personally I think that some extrinsic proofs do make real progress on solving the problems, such as laws; laws provide standard judgments and strategies for dealing with issues like sexual assault. If there are no laws, jury and judge couldn’t possibly analyze cases of rape.

Another student said extrinsic proofs can change when the location changes; she gave the example that the people’s perception towards rape in French maybe different from perceptions in Fenland. This is because some country is more open with woman’s sexuality than other countries. Egyptian countries for example are less open with woman dressing less. I think if the extrinsic proofs are unstable or sometimes unreliable, as the class said it changes when the environment changes, it is possible for woman to change the extrinsic proof in favor of their argument. Like for example, woman could choose to live in a country that is strict on rape and sexual harassment if they find American justice system unreliable.

Chapter 8 indicates that community authorities are those whose words earned respect by the community. The chapter also said that public figures are more reliable to society because they are well respected by public. If it’s possible for proximate figures to talk about the importance of sexual assault, it would raise more awareness than it should be. However, the instructor said in class that very few public figures or community figures have addressed the issue of rape in public. In order to alleviate the issue of sexual assault, government should encourage community figures or public figures to do more social work and make known of the severity of the victimization of rape. 

Blog Post 12: Feminist Response Group and Anti-Rape Wear

In today’s discussion the class talked about feminist response. The class talked about the article “The Danger of Anti-Rape Wear.” I think it’s interesting that this article address the issue of gender inequality. It says man always tells woman what to do but they never take action themselves. I think it’s interesting that the author questioned why can’t man stay home and let the woman go out at late night? Because after all it’s the man who are attacking the woman. This is a very interesting argument and I can see how strong minded this female author is. But I don’t disagree with the idea that woman should stay home at night, because realistically men are more powerful than woman, no matter how idealistic the thought of overthrowing male dominated society is, people need to face the fact man are indeed the dominator of this society, and this domination is culturally shaped by society. When majority of people believes in man are stronger, it’s hard for the feminists and the minority group to gain power. People think woman may encounter danger at late night with good reason. Practically women are observed as both physically and emotionally vulnerable. And this character is hardly changed because it is passed on by genes or biological evolution. Woman are born to be shorter and thinner than man; and they are born to have more emotional swings. Physical appearance does affect the way society perceives man and woman. This is why men are expected by society to act stronger but woman are allowed to be weak. If woman really want to be stronger, they should not only change their attitude or thinking but also their actions. Women could learn to empower themselves by the way they talk; when a man is attacking a woman by verbal assault, a woman knows how to retreat or defeat by using words. A woman could also just walk away from a man if the guy is unwilling to cooperate. A woman could do anything to avoid man laying hand on her, like asking bystander’s help. A woman could call her friends or family to seek for help too.

I think in the issue of sexual assault, it’s reasonable for woman to blame man for what happened, but the incident of rape is certainly not caused by man only, it involves both a man and a woman. So it’s hard to tell who holds the major responsibility because there is no evidence to prove who or what triggered the incident. It could be triggered by the guy’s behavior, or it could be triggered by the victim’s ambiguous response, we don’t know. So if there is someone to blame or take action, it should be both the male perpetrator and the woman who is perpetrated. The law should identify the true nature of man and woman; it shouldn’t just blame woman just because woman doesn’t talk as much as man does. The gender inequality not only expressed from the issue of rape but also from the legal and justice system. In my opinion, in romantic relationship, man are always the one who keeps complaining but it doesn’t mean they are not responsible for the fight; their female partner tend to listen to their complaints because they are way more mature than their male partners. Man are likely to be the kid who needs to be coddled; woman always take care of their male partner’s emotional stress, that’s why they keep their mouth shut and listened to them patiently. In the incident of sexual assault, it’s very likely a man started the whole incident and blame it on woman, but this doesn’t mean woman are the ones that deserve to be blamed or hold responsibility for the incident. The justice system should clarify or define the difference between man and woman when both confronting conflicts before giving righteous judgment about who should be blamed. 

Blog Post 11: Cultural Study about Fifty Shades of Gray

In today’s lecture we discussed about cultural factors that influence the matter of sexual assault. We talked about how the movie Fifty Shades of Gray contributes to the Kairos that creates the rape culture in the US. One thing interests me is when the professor said “Christian Gray can do it because he has money, otherwise it would be another episode of Criminal Mind.” I think it’s interesting how people would perceive Christian Gray’s character as an entirely different character with or without money. Audience might still perceive Christian as sexually attractive and powerful even if he commits abusive action like tie a girl up or beat her with a whip. Evidently, American culture perceives richness as a kind of bypass for criminality; American TV viewers would believe it is normal for a rich person to get away with crimes just because he is rich and powerful. As a Chinese girl, I can tell from the world view, not every culture agrees with this kind of notion that richness can bypass through everything. And certainly not every individual believes man with money or good appearance can get away with sexual assault. I realize that American culture always defines things in an idealistic or stereotypically perfect way, just like if this guy is rich then he can’t be a rapist. Many undeveloped cultures don’t have idealism as part of their culture, thus when they watch movies like Fifty Shades Of Gray, they hardly buy the sexual violence is romantic stuff.

In class the instructor asked us how does the movie manage to appeal? One of the student in class point out, from a parent’s point of view rape depicted on media is bad because parents don’t want their daughters getting raped, but still they don’t care if their kids watch media portrayed sexual assault. So to some degree, parents also hold some endurance for media portrayed sexual assault otherwise they won’t watch it or allow their children to watch it. Either they don’t realize media’s effect on them or they don’t care. As the instructor said, rape is something deeply rooted in their culture it becomes a norm. So if heavy TV viewers continually expose themselves to TV portrayed sexual assault, objectified woman, objectified man, would they start imitating these behaviors and believe that TV portrayed characters are real? According to some scholarly articles I read, this situation is highly unlikely for adults because adults know that media portrayed information is unreal, but children do imitate violent behaviors on TV. One effect brought by watching TV and movies is people become more tolerable with media portrayed violence or violent characters, they become to believe that TV portrayed violence is happening in the real world, thus attain more fear about the real world.

Personally, I think the movie appeal its audience by depiction of sexual pleasure. It is because the woman is depicted being sexually pleased and happy when she was with Christian (the dominant abuser), audience think their relationship is unique, interesting, romantic in a sexual way and even more acceptable. Even when violent depiction is brought into their sexual activity, the women still looks enjoyable, this consensual attitude towards sexual violence inspires female audiences and make them think that they can do this kind of action with their boyfriend, their husband or even male strangers. According to the documentary about the book Fifty Shades of Gray, the book publication is followed by thousands of ropes being sold. Couples start to role play the abnormal sexual activities depicted in the book and they said it was fun and exciting. What if these couples don’t realize their role play is actually modeling sexual violence and rape? Their role play is consensual because the female partners enjoyed playing the drama queen and beating their husband or getting beaten. I guess rape does shape our culture and construct our perception that defines who we are. If woman loves to play victims and masochist just like they did in the role play, I feel like the culture is certainly intoxicated by media’s way of shaping individual’s behavior and their way of treating their romantic partners.

Blog Post 10: Mythology group discussion, stats of age, gender and target group

Today we talked about mythology and age difference among victims of rape. The class reading shows rape with victims between the age of 12 and 18 is less likely to be charged than forcible incidents. The class member said the younger the victims and the rapist, the less likely the incident is to be charged or convicted because police would think they are young and inexperienced and let them get away; it’s considered less severe than rape between adults. On the other hand, children don’t report if incidents happened. Children are taught what sex is and how to commit sexual activities, and their parents are ok with it. In my view, it’s not safe for children or young adults to commit sexual intercourse even when they know what it is; because these kids are inexperienced with risks such as sex disease and rape. A 12 year old young girl is less likely to immediately report a forceful incident between her and her boyfriend than woman above that age. If parents are going to tell children about anything about sex, they should also teach them about how to prevent rape or sex disease; above all parents should teach their children how to interact with friends of different gender in order to prevent violence brought by miscommunication. Children or teenagers should know that they can report a rape even though they are kids; they need to be aware about risks of rape at early age, so that they don’t want to get involved in too much risky sexual activity.

Another interesting concept from our discussion is men are never raped. This concept shows how people’s idea about gender can alter their perception about rape. A man who is forced to commit sexual act by a woman is also called rape. Yet every few Americans believe this is authentic. Man is always stronger and more dominant than woman thus man cannot be raped. Other issue are brought up or correlated with this concept. Like for example, female rapists are more easily to get away with rape if reported because police is going to think that the guy raped her, instead of the guy being raped. This explains why there are so little reports about woman on man; it is always man on woman.

Moreover, the in class discussion addressed the nature of rape. The instructor suggested that rape is about violence and control instead of sex. But legal system sees rape as a sex crime, sex crime always blame man for being the perpetrator because the society perceives man as sexual animal. But like I said in the previous blog, man is also human being who receives social education and learns how to control themselves. Not all man wanted sex as much as the rapist did, but society keeps tell men that they are sexual beings. They perceive themselves as “the rapist” and lack of self-control. This is how social construction shape gender roles. Women are victims because they are weak and in control, they can never be “the rapist” because they don’t fit into the gender role of a male rapist. As long as people perceive rapists as man, they will allow woman who committed sex crimes to get away.

Lastly, the article shows that white people are more likely to be perpetrated than other race. I think race or racism also contributes to the issue of sexual assault. I read an article before; it says the reason white people are discriminating against black because society practically perceives white people as the good person, but black people as the criminal. Media too constantly portrays black people as the criminal or bad guy. I think because white people are perceived by the society as the good guy, it increases their victimization and or their probability to get raped. Oppositely, because black are perceived more dangerous, offender are less likely to go after a black victim than a white victim.