i must say, until recently, i had thought the major battles for equal gender rights were in the past...but i've been reading a book (about women lawyers) that illustrated the issues are deeper and worse than i thought.
part of the problem is that society on the whole has a hard time taking things like domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault/harrassment seriously. the author places the reasoning for this with the conventional theory of a woman's role in relationships and society...women were supposed to be sexually available to men, force was acceptable, and a wife was a man's property. much as those aren't "ok" views anymore, it's taking time for the ideas to completely fade.
the other problem is, the only way it was possible to get issues like rape and domestic violence taken seriously was to argue they were violations of individual rights, thus downplaying that they are symptoms of widespread oppression against an entire gender.
interesting theory your acquaintance has.
i must say, until recently, i had thought the major battles for equal gender rights were in the past...but i've been reading a book (about women lawyers) that illustrated the issues are deeper and worse than i thought.
part of the problem is that society on the whole has a hard time taking things like domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault/harrassment seriously. the author places the reasoning for this with the conventional theory of a woman's role in relationships and society...women were supposed to be sexually available to men, force was acceptable, and a wife was a man's property. much as those aren't "ok" views anymore, it's taking time for the ideas to completely fade.
the other problem is, the only way it was possible to get issues like rape and domestic violence taken seriously was to argue they were violations of individual rights, thus downplaying that they are symptoms of widespread oppression against an entire gender.
hm...can you tell i'm avoiding my paper? la...
Reply
Leave a comment