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.
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