Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Homework 8

pg. 135: "Even though FBI statistics clearly indicate that most men who assault women attach those within their own racial group, a culturally prevalent message to white women says otherwise. white girls learn from an early age that it is not their own white boyfriends and husbands who present the greatest risk to their safety. the real danger lurks with dark-skinned predators." I think this is an important quote because it is VERY true. Being a young white female, I was always taught that the danger lurks out there somewhere with the "other." Growing up in a mostly African American and Hispanic area, I was never allowed outside without an adult, and I was hardly able to drive around alone at night until I was older. It is as very true stereotype, but we need to change it, for the sake of violence against women. the need to know that all men, especially the ones that they date, are the ones that could hurt them the most.

This also having to do with the media image of the "rapist" pg. 149: "...the mythic image of the rapist as a masked man who hides in bushes and waits to leap out and attack women continues to resonate powerfully, because while this image strikes fear in the hearts of millions of women and girls every day-- it is also oddly reassuring for both women and men." When I first read this sentence, I immediately was able to relate to it. All my friends and I are extremely cautious when walking alone, especially at night. We all carry mace and have our keys out just in case someone jumps out and attacks us while walking home from an evening class. We do this because we have been told to. We feel that men have to walk us home, to protect us. How did it get this way? Can we change how we work by changing the face of our attackers?

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