The Making of Gendered Violence

The Making of Gendered Violence

Caitlin Murray

January 29th, 2016

For an act that is considered “taboo” to talk about, violence against women is one of the most prolific violent acts in the world. Because it is so common that a woman will experience violence against them at one point in their lives, the act often goes overlooked by either society or the victim themselves. Media has taught us that violence against women occurs, but because of the way it is portrayed, we often don’t see the real brutality of the act, which can desensitize us. Intersectionality has helped woman strengthen their fight against assaults, but has also ignored the differences between assaults that occur between races. There unfortunately is a difference between the assault of a white woman and the assault of a black woman. This paper will discuss these topics and look at why each of them occurs.

The rape or domestic abuse of women has now become a familiar scene in movies and television. But are we actually seeing the assault? Most often we are not. The assault is almost always implied, by showing the woman or girl crying afterwards, in a broken state telling her friends and family what happened. We can even see the victim immediately after the assault occurred. However it is extremely rare for media to film an assault scene (Easteal, 2015). This is because the assault scene is usually "too graphic” and viewers do not want to have to witness such a gruesome act.

This not only creates a taboo nature for rape or domestic abuse in media, but also creates a taboo nature of rape and domestic abuse in our culture. If we don’t see it happen, then we can never know how violent the act really is. We can hear about it happening and can to at some degree learn the affects on the victim afterwards, but if we don’t see the act happening then we can never truly learn the level of violence being inflicted upon them which can never create empathy. This is not saying that media should be creating rape scenes in order for people to understand, it is saying that by filming scenes where rape is implied, it takes away the violence of the actual act (Easteal, 2015).

Not only do we not see what is being inflicted upon the victim, but we also do not see the demeanor that a man must be in, in order to inflict such a violent act on a woman. Because of this, victim blaming comes into play. We often see victim blaming when a college student accuses a star athlete of rape or assault. Society only sees that this star athlete is a man who is great at whatever sport he plays, which puts him in a positive light. This positive light often outshines the fact that this aggressor is also a rapist or is capable of assault against a woman (Easteal, 2015).

In regards to violence against women, race can create problems for women who are seeking justice for their assaults. The violence that women can experience will often be shaped by other dimensions of their identities, such as race and class. In our society, the act of assaulting a white woman is not aligned with the act of assaulting a black woman or a woman who is part of a minority race. When a white woman is assaulted, the act is seen as “more violent” when compared to a black woman who has been assaulted (Crenshaw, 1991). This can be cause by culture norms. Society has taught us that it is more common for a black woman to be assaulted than it is for a white woman, which can in fact be true. But why is this true? This is true because if and when a black woman reports an assault it is not taken as seriously by law enforcement, or by society, than if a white woman were to report it.  Black women often accept their assaults because it happens so often in their social groups, which only perpetuates the ongoing of assaults against black women made by black men (Miller, 2008). Not only are they accepting it, but society is accepting it, which does nothing to stop the assaults. It is not a shock when you hear of a black woman who is in an abusive relationship, and not much is done to help her get out of it. However when you hear of a white woman who has been assaulted, there is more of an effort to press charges against her aggressor (Crenshaw, 1991).