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Sexism in the society
The impact of rape culture
Rape culture sociology
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Also, reworded from law 129, when a wife was caught cheating, she got drowned after being tied to the man she cheated with. Men would not normally be punished if they were unfaithful to their wives however. This rule and most other ones are extremely bias, making the code even more unfair.
[7] In his book, “Missoula,” John Krakauer analyses the issue of rape in the college town of Missoula. Krakauer begins his work by quoting the article False Allegations of Sexual Assault: Rape is unique. No other violent crime is so fraught with controversy, so enmeshed in dispute and in the politics of gender and sexuality… And within the domain of rape, the most highly charged area of debate concerns the issue of false allegations. For centuries, it has been asserted and assumed that women “cry rape,” that a large proportion of rape allegations are maliciously concocted for purposes of revenge or other motives.
These laws, then, uphold old notions of chastity and virginity, while providing a weapon against men from social groups we do not like. They also deprive women in their mid and late teens of choice under the guise of protecting that choice. The highly “patriarchal and paternalistic” law is what Delgado sees an area for further revue. With the lack of women being charged for such crimes, he questions things such as pressured intercourse and sexual love involving two consenting individuals.
Rape myths are at the center of the problem of how rape and sexual assault cases are looked at, and treated as in society. Rape myths vary, some excuse the rape, others try to minimize the severity of the situation, while others doubt the act even happened in the first place (Levit and Verchick, 196). Some examples of rape myths include: a victim was “asking for it,” a victim’s previous sexual history, regretful sex is not rape, a woman’s “no” means “yes,” and women lie about rape all the time. Rape myths are targeted towards women, not the rapist. Despite, rape myths being proved false by empirical evidence, they are still prevalent in society.
In Tyboria Stones’ defense, she says that she did not do it because “she does not see the point in going out to rape an old woman when she already has a woman” for herself (Deavere 161). Also, Tyboria’s case may have suffered from an added amount of prejudice, due to the fact that “she is stocky and muscular, with her hair trimmed very close to the sides, short and curly on the top” (Deavere 161). From this information, one may infer that the women here did not have the opportunities to bring their cases toward the legal system
In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” the knight’s punishment for raping a girl is to set out on a year long journey to find out what women desire most. This story is sexist portraying women in a negative light. The tale portrays women as tricksters and seducers.
In courts, where dances occur, married women would have affairs with men that are their age.. The conflict begins with a woman’s ability to choose a man she desires, yet she marries an older man with no love. Men accused married woman for being sexual since, supposedly, they are culpable of the marriage. Medieval society portrayed married women as disloyal wives who were unable to their control their sexual desires toward young men. Married women are stereotyped to be sexually intrigued and manipulative towards young men.
All of the female characters suffer through it on at least one occasion. When Cunegonde describes the attack on her family’s castle and her subsequent rape she states that it is “the customary way of doing things.” (23) The narrator describes another violent scene: “Girls who had been disemboweled after having sated the natural needs of some of the heroes were breathing their last.” (9) The rape of women is viewed as “natural” and the rapists are “heroes” of the story.
In society and college campuses, sexual assault occurs quite frequently. According to an estimation one third of women experience a forced sexual experience at least once in their life and most of the time it occurs in colleges. Men have also been reported to be victim of sexual assaults mostly by other men. Most of the time the sexual assault is planned and perpetrated by a third person, who is known to the victim of incident. Drug and alcohol use play role in this issue and contribute to the problem as most of the time the victim and perpetrators are under the effect of alcohol or any other drug during the incident.
“Although concerning sexual practices between adults and children have existed throughout history and across cultures, whether such behavior was conceived of and defined as ‘abuse’ has been dependent on the societal values of the particular period” (Denov, 2004). In today’s society, sex offending has become an increasingly, concerning phenomenon that individuals must become more aware of. Although generally regarded as a male phenomenon, over time, female perpetrators have become equally important as male perpetrators. Due to the lack of public awareness, female sexual predators go unreported. As a result, society must become more aware of female sexual perpetrators, as many incidents of females assaulting both young men and women have gone unreported for some time.
Sexual assault laws have been amended and created over time to ensure the criminal justice system remains sensitive to the tribulations involved in rape trials for the victim. However, the connotative capacity of language used in evidentiary testimonies in rape trials can defeat the purpose of these reforms as ‘language is not merely a means of putting forth evidence in a case, but it in fact transforms the nature of evidence itself, thus influencing the outcome of the case’ (Maheshwari 2014:1). As theorised by Bourdieu (1982) symbolic power as ‘the power to create reality through language’ (Matoesian 1995:38) is successfully employed in rape trials to instil patriarchal and legal domination over the victim. The use of language in courtroom
In 1641, a law stated that women found guilty of adultery were punished by death, men would receive only a whipping for the same crime (Vann 1). It was viewed as a greater harm to society if a woman was to birth an illegitimate child for the action was viewed as a greater moral offense. Girls were required to preserve their virginity until marriage. Afterwards, “it was considered a husband’s duty to ensure his wife’s fidelity by preventing all situations that could awaken her sensuality” (Brabcová 3). Women were not to have sex or have children but as soon as they were married it was expected for them to bear children for the family.
During the Middle Ages, hitting, raping, and in some cases killing was condoned, and wasn’t a crime. Throughout the Wife of Bath’s prologue, we see examples of one of her various husbands assaulting her. Especially with John, we see he had “Beaten me [Wife of Bath] in every bone” (272), “He [Johnny] struck me [Wife of Bath] still can ache along my row of ribs” (272) and “Smote me on the head” (279). But when Johnny hit her, causing her to be deaf in one ear, she refused to remain submissive any longer and she hit him back: “I up at once and Smote him on the cheek” (280). Her actions, though seemingly benign in this modern time, was far more significant then.
As only Victorian women are subjected to chastity, men could carry out sexually promiscuous acts whereas women are deemed “fallen” for sexual impurity. This double standard was crystallised and institutionalised in the Matrimonial Causes Act, allowing men to obtain a divorce when their wives committed fornication, but denying women the same
There are numerous definitions of rape culture. The most accurate definition of rape culture is, “a complex set of beliefs that encourage male sexual aggression and supports violence against women . . . In a rape culture, women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm . . . In a rape culture, both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable.”