Patriarchal Terrorism

The phrase "patriarchal terrorism" is used by sociologist Michael P. Johnson as a way to conceputalize the violence by male figures in some families. Growing up, my best friend, lets call her Jane, was abused by her father on a daily basis. Being nine, I did not quite understand what the bruises and burn marks meant. As I got older, our famlilies (being military families) grew apart and about six months ago, I got a chilling call from my mom. My best friends mother was in the hospital from a deadly beating that she got from her husband. Even to this day, I do not understand how she stayed for those ten years in a relationship that was completely belittling and physically harmful to both her and her children. While reading Chapter 11: Interpersonal Gender Violence, my complete relationship with Jane and the rest of her family came to mind. The patriarchal terrorism that played out in that family relied heavily on the general idea that you are not suposed to interfere with other people's households. While thinking about why Jane's mother did not leave, I read that minimally, 50% of women in an abusive household leave. The reasons why are definitely hard to pinpoint. But I think the fact that affordable housing today is so hard to find, especially for women, domestic violence (if the woman decides to leave) becomes a cause for homelessness for women, could play a part. I think that if we really wanted domestic violence, and the patriarchal terrorism to end, then we would help those women who put themselves out because they are in danger. After reading this chapter, I went to the The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World and looked at the chapters on Domestic Violence and looked at the figures for the United States. 23 women a week are killed by intimates. Thinking of Jane's mom, and how lucky she is to be alive, of all women murdered between 1976 and 2005, 43% were by an intimate. 22%-35% of women who visit a hopsital Emergency Room do so because of domestic violence. Sometimes the enemy is not overseas hiding in a cave, but rather in your best friends bedroom, beating her until she is black and blue. The whole world turning a blind eye, because what happens in a family is a personal matter, and you just do not intrude on the lives of others.

Lyrics versus Images-Dreamworlds 2

While watching Dream Worlds 2, the videos that were all crammed into that film I had seen before. Some of the words to the songs played out in my head, distracting me from the content of the movie. This brought up an interesting point to me. Since birth, I had been shown these images, but never thought twice about them-until now. For me, I think that the words of the songs, whether they be lust, love, or just plain old bumping and grinding, take away from the deliberate meaning 0f the images portrayed. In my mind, the rump shaking and scantily clad women fit into what the music artist was talking (or singing) about, making it almost okay for the women to be portrayed in this way. If a women is doing all these things, even participating in a little girl-on-girl action, but the artist claims that it's all for the love baby, then its smiled upon because it is good to see a nice pretty girl snag a good man. That is the ultimate goal. To get married and have lots and lots of babies who will then keep the cycle going... circle of life. While this is all fine and well, the means by how we accomplish this goal worry me. Music videos, the very same in Dreamworlds 2, tell women that to get a man (and to keep him) you must be thin, have amazing hair, be able to dance like nobody's business, and of course, be drop dead gorgeous. Of course, I disagree with all of this. This videos are merely a dreamworld, these women are the minority of the female population, and because of the "respect" mainstream culture has for these music video divas, they, the minority, have a huge impact on both the female and male population.

Women and Domestic Violence

When I opened The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World to chapters 7-9, I was hit with bright colors and numbers... Many many numbers. I started to read the two pages in my western, left to right way. The startling numbers jumped off of the page; instantly making me compare the numbers of so many killed a year... or a week... to that nations total population. I read the little snippet about the percentage of how many women believe it is okay for "a husband to beat his wife for one or more specific reasons-burning food..."(28). For Egypt, 94% of women believe that it is acceptable for husbands to beat the wife. The other day I was talking to a friend of mine, who is half Egyptian, and another friend of Mexican descent. I brought up this fact, and the first girl replied to me, agreeing with the fact. It startled me; but I thought about how she plays the role of the stereotypical woman. She believes that women do belong in the kitchen, she is often taken advantage of (not in a sexual way) by male friends of ours. The oppression of women goes both ways- women often accept it. I kept on reading and the next eye opening facts were talking about so-called "honor killings". The mere idea of a woman being killed just because they were sexually inappropriate for that specific society. The highest number was in Pakistan for the year 2006, with 4,100+. And then it kept on going... The number of women killed by Domestic Violence... the number of cases reported... And I felt my heart go out to women who are defenseless and who society has deemed as lesser beings. Each day women are killed by husbands... boyfriends... stalkers... step fathers.... whomever, merely because the male views them as something to be used, something that when they are done or if it doesn't work properly, they can just be thrown away.