Friday, November 14, 2008

Week 8 Homework

I had such a hard time limiting my quotes to two because I have the majority of the book highlighted! But here are some...

pg.92-"The ultimate responsibility for the perpetration of violence lies not with the victims but with the perpetrators. Stated another way: domestic  and sexual violence are serious problems not because so many women experience them but because so many men perpetrate or tolerate them". This quote really impacted me because it sends a strong message that we shouldn't just be concerned because there are a lot of victims, but because there are so many men out there who are being violent with women and the twisted part is, they think it is normal and ok. 

pg. 229-"The crime of domestic violence is not simply caused by men's poor anger management skills. Instead, it is the product of a belief system-itself deeply rooted in male dominance-whose central tenet is that men should be in control in a relationship, their needs should come first, and if force is necessary to gain the woman's compliance, then that is just an unpleasant fact of life. Similarly, one of the most important theoretical insights of the rape crisis movement is that rape is not about a man's inability to control his sexual desire; it is more about his need to conquer and posses another person". I found this statement powerful because so many people think that rape has to do with sexual desire rather than about power and control. This plays into victim blaming as well. They think because a woman is dressed a certain way when she was raped means she was asking for it. Men can control themselves and rape is not about sexual desire. 

I also found these quotes moving as well and they speak for themselves:
pg.20-"What is perhaps even more disturbing is that in this culture, many people see gender violence as a problem of sick and damaged individuals, and not as a social phenomenon that's causes and solutions lie in much larger social forces".
pg.28-"Their violence says something about us."
pg. 18-"Everything that happens to women happens to men too."

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