Gender-based violence tends to refer to violence or forms of inequality directed to a person because of one's gender. Women and girls tend to face gender violence in society because of male dominance. It reflects on the violation of women's rights and also discrimination against women. The gender violence inflicted on women can be in forms of physical harm, economic harm, sexual harm, emotional and threats, which mostly results from toxic relationships.
Gender violence affects women across the universe, and thus many bodies and theories formed to fight off this type of violence that gets inflicted on women (Lorber, 2017). Gender violence can inflict pain on women and lead to severe issues such as unwanted pregnancies, diseases such as HIV& AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and also unsafe abortions. It can lead to physical and psychological trauma that can drive the women who face gender violence into suicidal thoughts or even commit murder in terms of self-defense. The male gender has forced females into clinical trials, which include using women as "lab rats" in order to invent new drugs and also cure some diseases. The author tries to bring out the male dominance by illustrating the root cause of Gender violence; however, one also uses feminist theories to liberate feminine interests.
Root Causes of Gender Inequality Concerning Gender and Violence
Power and Sex
Violence tends to be motivated by the need to dominate women. Men tend to use violence as a tool against women to show that one is more superior than women. The use of power and control is mostly visible in intimate partners where the man can choose to be toxic or even overprotective to prevent the woman from intermingling with any other men (Lorber 2012). Also, men can use rejection as a tool in response to rejection. Power brings about sexual desires and aggression; thus, this makes a man to rape women to show off his male prowess or even superiority. In most cases, sexually aggressive men tend to open up about what drives them to commit acts of sexual abuse, which entails rape (Lorber 2017). Most admitted that gets always dominated by aggression and that they are sadistic.
Religion
Religion tends to be an essential need for humans since it contains teachings and doctrines that teach values about how persons can live a chaste life. Some of the religious texts or religions can encourage abusive behavior or even oppression of women. Most of the religions tend to make men more superior to women, thus forcing the women to be submissive. In some religions, women are not allowed to worship on public grounds. Thus, they are forced to pray in private spaces and cubicles, like in the case of the Islamic Religion (Lorber 2012). The religion also tends to control how women display their selves where it controls how one dresses or also the marriage rules, which, when broken, one can be stoned to death or banished out of the society. The religions do not offer a second option of one facing the judicial law system where one gets punished for one's wrongdoings without facing a death penalty.
Media
Pornography tends to encourage the undermining of the female's rights where women are objectified, and thus sexual aggression is inflicted on them. When a man tends to be more addicted to watching pornography which shows violent sexual behavior or activities, this tends to increase men's violent behavior toward women (Lorber 2017). Most pornographies tend to bring about masochism which is the sexual pleasure that comes about when one gets subjected to physical pain. Also, the watching of violent, pornographic videos tends to reduce one's understanding of rape victims. The violent sexual scenes in the pornographic videos tend to make the young male children develop aggressive behavior, and thus they will not be able to realize the difference between the real world and also the virtual world. It makes them not feel any pain when they are hurting women since, in the pornographic videos, there are no consequences of using violent behaviors.
Social Institutions
Socialization tends to begin in a family setting, and this is where the child has the first encounter with the "humans." When children are born into a family with no supervision on morals and etiquette, physical abuse, and neglect, the child is at a higher risk of becoming more violent as one grows older. It also makes the child more violent to their spouses when one has become an adult. Schools also have been found to contribute to the formation of aggressive behaviors in men. Participation in sports tends to encourage aggressive behavior in young boys or may activate the dormant aggressive behavior in a person.
Politics of Gender Inequality
Campaigns Created to Ban Pornography
The campaign groups formed by women to fight pornography sees it as a form of sexual exploitation and that it plays a significant part in bringing about gender violence. The campaigns formed to support the women and keep them sexually healthy and free from any exploitation or even coercion. The pornographic industry has corrupted minds and distorted one's ideas regarding sex and sexuality (Straten and Lorber 1999). The campaign is also essential in improving the women's self-awareness and ensuring that they are not objectified or perceived as objects that enjoy pain or any forms of humiliation.
Campaign groups have also fought for the formation of laws to safeguard women's rights. Laws that can punish one when found with possession of obscene, pornographic videos that encourages one to take one's life, injure the feminine gender, or even rape. Also, a maximum penalty for the possession of these obscene, pornographic materials can result in one getting jailed for three years or even more (Straten and Lorber 1999). Also, the campaign groups have formed some laws that punish those who publish and create pornographic contents and even distribute the pornographic videos to persons under a younger age.
Rape Crisis Centers
It refers to organizations formed to help victims of rape or sexual violence. These centers tend to provide a large number of services such as educational programs, community outreach, and also how one can easily cope up with the traumatic events, and these include the use of counselling techniques to improve on one's mental health and also to encourage self-awareness (Straten and Lorber 1999). The centers provide emotional support to the victims. These organizations also work in partnership with the law enforcers to curb this issue of rape.
The centers also educate the victims on legal aspects in that the law can protect them. Also, it provides the victims with advocates to present them in the court of law since the justice system can be at times harsh. It also educates them on how the survivors can get quick medical care and how to get an examination after the attack if one chooses to build a case.
The rape crisis centers also work in partnership with the community to ensure that the victims get taught on sexual violence, how to develop the right attitude, and also how one can develop positive attitudes in order to manage stress effectively and also reduce the development of suicidal thoughts. The rape crisis centres have also worked in partnership with the judicial system to reform rape laws and ensure that it suits the feminine gender since some of the lawmakers have zero experience when it comes to handling rape matters or having any knowledge about what the hardships these women go through when they come to seek help at the crisis centres. At the crisis centres, the women get taught on how self-defence such as the art of karate so that they can be able to defend themselves when attacked by rapists.
Possible Solutions to your Problems from a Combination of Theories
Patriarchy
The theory of patriarchy refers to how men dominate over the feminine gender in terms of leadership, politics, authority, management of properties.
Making Men and Boys Agents of Change
In order to ensure that the theory of patriarchy gets dissolved, Boys and men should work in partnership with women in order to prevent gender-based violence. Men and women are both enrolled in programs that tend to educate men and also young men on gender violence and also how it affects women (Straten and Lorber 1999). The men get taught in different forms of violence, how to avoid violence, encourage self-awareness, and also the invention of mobilization and educational programs to reform the mentality that men are more superior to women and how they can equally treat the women without discriminating them.
Sexual Objectification
Advertisement and pornographic contents in the media tend to set foot on encouraging acts of violence since it objectifies women as a tool (Lorber 2017). In men, media tries to set a foundation that they are more aggressive, dominant and that they can dominate and rule the feminine in any way one wants, even in terms of inflicting pain on them.
In order to combat sexual objectification, organizations need to work in partnership with the judicial system in order to educate, engage and also influence the entertainment industry positively in order to improve on how they represent women in the media, this will aid in reducing sexual aggressiveness that is mostly exhibited by the males (Lorber 2017). Also, the organizations need to form laws and strict rules that help in banning any form of pornographic movies that show explicit violent sexual content. It should also ensure that the laws punish persons in the pornographic industry that encourage the objectification of women.
Liberal Feminism
Liberal feminism refers to the theme of achieving equality between the masculine and the feminine gender, and it tries to alter any forms of discriminatory practices against women. This theory tends to help women achieve equality in terms of the law, society, and also at one's workplace. It also aims at working in partnership with the law firms and organizations to bring lawsuits to the victims of gender violence who are mostly women.
The liberal feminism theory has been successful in enabling women to get proper wages, legalize safe abortion practices for women. It has also improved in ensuring that the women are free from discrimination at the workplace and that they are treated equally by the masculine gender. The women are now able to secure good jobs, reasonable incomes, and also one can own property and also single-handedly take care of one's children without facing any social prejudices. It has also brought about making language in the children` s books more gender-neutral, this aids in preventing future male aggressiveness and violence towards the feminine gender.
Religion
Some religions, including its doctrines and texts, tend to facilitate gender violence, the religions identify the male as a supreme being and the female as a subordinate. In order to curb this misinformation, the religious leaders need to provide guidance and also counselling to the victims so that they can feel that they are essential and that they have a place in society (Lorber 2017). The religious leaders need to use positive religious teachings and to assist those who have undergone this traumatic event and that the religious texts need to condone ant form of sexual abuse or even gender violence.
Various organizations and also the female rights movements, advocates, and counsellors need to teach the religious persons about gender violence and how the religious persons can also help shape the society to avoid any forms of gender violence that may arise in the future or even the present.
Formed Laws
The establishment of zero tolerance to violence or sexual violence on every ground such as places of work playgrounds or even the parks can help reduce gender inequality. It includes the formation of laws t...
