Weak Women

Violence against women has existed for as long as we can remember. Forcible rape, date rape, murder, and violence in the home are all types of violence against women. Gender inequality often leads men to believe they are superior to women and there for they can act violently towards women if they please. This is why females are more likely to be victims of violence to men, rather than men being victims to women.

Forcible rape is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with another person without that person’s consent or if that person is incapable of giving consent because of his/her temporary or permanent metal or physical incapacity. Although rape rates have gone down over the years still 1 in 1000, 12 to 50 year old women is raped a year. Most abusers are familiar with their victims a most abusers are men. 7% of rapes come from a relative, 34% from someone known well, 24% from casual acquaintances, and 34% from strangers. A stranger commits only 1 in 3 rapes. Date rape is rape committed by the victim’s escort or an acquaintance. Date rape is extremely common in colleges and universities and is only reported about 5% of the time. Over a six-month study 1.7% of women enrolled in colleges and universities with more than 1000 students had been raped.

Murders, again are mostly always committed men. 89% of killers are men and when a woman is murdered 9 times out of 10 it is by a man. Violence in the home consists of three types of violence, that being spouse battering, marital rape, and incest. Women are the victims of this violence in most cases as well.

With all these violent crimes against women almost always is there attacker a man. Why is that? A symbolic interactionist may view this problem as cultural. Many cultures associate violence with strength and as strength is so valued in our society men will do anything to be “strong” despite what that means for women. This urge for strength starts at a young age when boys are bullied on the play ground for not fighting or being aggressive. They are called names like sissy, wimp, and girl because as men are “strong” in our society, women are “weak”. We need to break the connection with strength and violence in our society. In order to do so we need to change the image of men (strong and violent) in our schools, media, homes, and work place. We need to eliminate violent video games and have our shows and movies show friendly and happy interactions between men and women. As well as educate young people about this problem and create more severe consequences for students using violence especially boys using violence against girls in elementary, middle, and high schools around the U.S.

A functionalist might view this problem as functional for society because it creates jobs for many people. Shelters for battered women, support groups, and mental health doctors such as psychologists benefit greatly from violent crimes against women. When a woman is raped or beaten she turns to doctors and support groups to feel loved again. However, a functionalist might also view this problem as dysfunctional for society because if domestic violence occurs it causes and unstable environment for a child to grow up in. If the violence is ended by a divorce or a restraining order the father may lose all custody rights of his child. This also causes confusion and mental health problems for the underdeveloped minds of these children.

A conflict theorist would view this problem as being caused by the attention brought to the matter as well as society evolving and women having more power than ever. After being superior for so long men are angered by women getting a job over them or women having more power than them. They feel threatened and in turn want to show women that they are in fact better than them. Often times they do this by raping or hurting women. They think that if they are physically over powering women they show women that they are better. Men hope that this will cause women to back down and go back to “their place” in the household raising children.