CRJ #3

I think there definitely exists a relationship between gender (masculinity and femininity) and sexual violence. Although violence can go both ways it is primarily against women. Today, violence against women and girls is one of the most disturbing aspects of living in a culture that promotes power in human relationships based on tings such as class, race, and gender. In the U.S., a woman is more likely to be assaulted, injured, raped, or murdered by a male partner than by any other type of attacker. There are many different statistics out there and all of them are disturbing.

· Approximately 3 to 4 million women are beaten each year and more than 1,000 women-an estimated 4 per day-are murdered by their husbands or partners (The National Woman Abuse Prevention Project).
· According to statistics, a rape is committed every 6 minutes (WHO)

The relationship between this kind of violence and gender masculinity comes from cultural norms that socialize males to be powerful, aggressive, unemotional, controlling, and as society sees it, dominant. Then at the same time you have women whose expectations in society are the opposite. Women are deemed as passive, submissive and emotional. These do nothing to help violence against women because it just makes them appear weak, powerless, and dependent upon men. This is how society portrays gender. As the text says, “sex in terms of raw male and female, is already gendered by the culture within which these physiology facts of biology exist.” This implies that culture forms characteristics associated with male and female behavior and builds boundaries on how each sex has to behave. Another example from the text which also enforces how society affects us is how it is so easy for a female to say that she was a tomboy and so difficult for a male to admit being called a sissy. Society feels that being a tomboy is acceptable because men are strong and have more value than women.

But this idea of male superiority goes even further. We see it in the media, schools, work and even sports. Nelson touches on that when he brings up ideas about gender in the institution of sports. It is a common assumption that men are better at sports than women when in fact that is not the case. In truth it all depends. Men are better at certain sports than women but women are also better at other sports. These norms serve to create stereotyped gender-role definitions in which males are encouraged to exercise control and authority aggressively. As a result, violence against women and girls has become a part of society.

I think a lot of these social and cultural norms of men being dominant over women also come from the classrooms. These stereotypes send mixed messages to young children and these young children are the most easily influenced out of everyone. Recognition of violence is the first step in addressing this issue. Schools must also go beyond this in order to have a deeper impact on these children. Addressing false stereotypes and sexual violence workshops will go a lot further in changing this idea of male dominance over women. Therefore, issues of violence must be addressed both as a problem affecting students and adults, and as a social issue to be discussed in the classroom.