Project: Rape and Rape Culture
1) What are the main ideas and/or issues of the article as it relates to the chosen topic?
Welsh et al. (2006) used data from the research focus groups of Canadian women to discuss the issue of sexual harassment among Canadian women and how the white Canadian women, who are mostly heterosexual, define sexual harassment and rape (objective) versus how the women of color define their experience of rape and sexual harassment in workplace (subjective). According to Welsh et al. (2006), he discussed how race, gender and citizenship are important factors in how Women of color with and without citizenship right define sexual harassment and rape. Sometimes as race and sometimes sees it as an experience they will pass through at some point or the other in their lives and most times they failed to report because of their legal statues, fear, pity, guilt, love, ignorance, lack of education. He also discussed how they fail to pay attention to the interlocking aspect of race and citizenship and how the legal system failed to give as much attention to the few reported case of rape by women of color because of their passed sexual history. While on the other hand, the white Canadian Woman defines her experience of rape and harassment not as a race but as what the author failed to discuss. The white Canadian woman knows when the boundary is crossed and most times do not contemplate to express her legal rights.
2) Based on the reading from your textbook, what makes these ideas and/or issues so important to understand?
Textual harassment has been one of the major prevailing forms of violence in the present day society. Both males and females are prone to be victims but females are more susceptible to be ta...
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...ually at risk for many health problems such as acid throw, depression, blood pressure, sleep problems and most result in death. There is a need for more education and awareness on sexual harassment and more specifically as it relates to race and gender. Laws and policies should be enacted to protect equal rights of women in the society, victims should be taken serious irrespective of their color and their cases should be investigated beyond a reasonable doubt, therefore given justice to the right parties.
Works Cited
Sandy Welsh, Jacquie Carr, Barbara MacQuarrie, Audrey Huntly “I’m Not Thinking of It as Sexual Harassment”: Understanding Harassment across Race and Citizenship. Gender and Society. 20.1 ( 2006): 87-107. Print.
Donna, George. “Textual Harassment.” Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions. Ed. Shaw and Lee’s. McGraw-Hill, 2013. 540-542. Print.
Women of color are treated differently; law does not function as a social mediator between relationships of all people. The focus is on women of colour and how non-white communities are considered inherently violent. By such stereotypes, rape myths create a belief that certain races are more dangerous than others, creating fear based on the social construction of society. Using the ``Slut Walk`` article as an example: women have argued ``it is different for a white middle class women to wear something slutty and march in a parade than a women of colour.`` Due to the social construction black woman are more likely to have their characters stereotype and are seen more promiscuous compared to white woman. (Julie Dowsett Lecture).Stereotyping has even gone so far where a police official made a comment about York university students, referring to the females saying “they should not dress like a slut” to reduce assault (Slutwalk 249). Such rape myths put women on the line, claiming that it is their fault for getting sexually assaulted because they provoke men. “Such stereotypical assumptions find their roots in many cultures, including our own. They no longer, however, find a place in Canadian law” (R. v. Ewanchuck
The topic of sexual and personal harassment is held very close to my heart because both my mother and aunt had gotten harassed when they first came to Canada. Arriving here in the early 80’s they had both gotten a below satisfactory job where they were not treated with respect nor humanity. Not only new to Canada, the community and the social environment but they were new to the job force; they were seen as an easy target because they did not know nor understand their laws and rights as a worker in Canada. Men would force themselves on them and would constantly call at late hours of the night disturbing their sleep and their lives. To this day I do get angry at the lack of human resources that existed in that time period. When I apply for a job I would do a bit of research to ensure myself that I know exactly what I am getting myself into. With doing so, I would remind myself of the rights that I have as a working Canadian; also it helps me get a well understanding about the benefits I have thus knowing how to deal with situations. Due to these reason I personally found this article extremely appealing to me. When I skimmed the article for the first time it instantly grasped my interest as I was able to make a connection to it and for this simple reason I knew I had to utilize it for this
Systemic discrimination has been a part of Canada’s past. Women, racial and ethnic minorities as well as First Nations people have all faced discrimination in Canada. Policies such as, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, provincial and federal Human Rights Codes, as well has various employment equity programs have been placed in Canada’s constitution to fight and address discrimination issues. Despite these key documents placed for universal rights and freedoms Aboriginal and other minority populations in Canada continue to be discriminated against. Many believe there is no discrimination in Canada, and suggest any lack of success of these groups is a result of personal decisions and not systemic discrimination. While others feel that the legislation and equality policies have yet resulted in an equal society for all minorities. Racism is immersed in Canadian society; this is clearly shown by stories of racial profiling in law enforcement.
...ough group and individual models of deviant behaviour. The patriarchal pedagogy and structures that set the stage for permitting sexual assault to occur historically, still continue today, although in more subtle ways. Women are still seen as the property of men, and are protected as such. Men and women are still taught to occupy very different roles in today's world. Men are usually in power positions, especially of an economic nature, and women are seen as passive. Marxist-feminist and differential identification are two theories that can be used to effectively explicate the cycle of sexualized violence in Canadian society today. In order to deal with the occurrence of sexual assault in our society, we must examine its causes more deeply. We must understand the sociology of sexualized violence in order to effectively explicate its groups and individual dynamics.
Racial discrimination in the workplace has been a persistent theme in Canada’s history as well as present-day times. The occurrence of actions and attitudes that impose a sense of one being less equal than another on the basis of one’s race in Canada’s workplace inhibits both our nation’s ability to move forward as well as strengthen unification within our country. The belief in a more egalitarian society, where one’s race and ethnic background have little to no impact on employees (or potential employees) standings within the job market, would seemingly be reinforced by the majority of Canadians, who consistently show support for Canada’s multicultural identity. Couple that with the noticeable strides Canada has made in the past several decades through legislation, in order to eliminate discriminatory practices and actions within the workplace, and one would likely assume that racial discrimination within the workplace is largely a concern of the past. However, current research supports the argument that the level of which racial discrimination occurs today is increasing, and as such it persists to be a key problem in the current workplace of the nation. In the workplace, racial discrimination is often seen with regard to uneven access to jobs, unfair selection and promotion criteria (as well as access to the means in order to meet this criteria), and workplace harassment. This paper compares similar findings of two articles; the first, Racial inequality in employment in Canada, as was published in the Canadian Public Administration (CPA), and the second, What Are Immigrants’ Experiences of Discrimination in the Workplace?, published by the Toronto Immigrant Employment Data Initiative (TIEDI).
In Canadian society, the numbers of sexually violent incidents in universities continue to grow. Every year, approximately 58.7% of first-year female students experience forms of sexual violence, a growing concern for universities (Senn et. al. Results). Women constantly say they will never be victims of sexual violence, yet studies show that one in four women have been sexually assaulted (Senn et. al. 2). Although sexual violence will never completely be resolved, the policies created by universities across Canada have proven to be ineffective when compared to student efforts. Also, Canadian universities lack a sufficient number of policies that address sexual violence and have a high number of sexual assaults, which demonstrate the ineffectiveness
A non-guilty verdict in the murder trial of Bradley Barton accused of killing Cree mother of three Cindy Gladue who bled to death from an eleven centimetre internal laceration argues that the wound was the result of rough sex. Gladue known in Edmonton as a sex worker spent two night with Barton in an Edmonton hotel room in June 2011. This essay will argue the appeal that was warranted through looking firstly at feminist analyses of sexual assault and legal consent, secondly, the contexts of intersectional power relations/ interlocking oppressions such as Gladue being a women from a Cree nationality who works as a sex worker, thirdly the problematic notion of Gladue being the bearer
Carol Hay argues that victims of harassment have obligations to confront perpetrators. She accentuates that this is necessary to not only preserve and protect the autonomy and moral agency of the victim herself but also those of others. She posits that when one negates to confront perpetrators they cause harm to women as a whole. In this essay I will argue that Hay’s argument
In the single year of 2009, there were 460,000 reported incidents of sexual assault against women in Canada (“Criminal Victimization in Canada” 1). Amnesty International once stated that aggression against women “is so deeply embedded in society that it often fails to garner public censure and outrage.” This is evidenced by the fact that only roughly 10% of all sexual assaults are revealed, and to exacerbate the circumstances, women are frequently repudiated, blamed, and dispensed apathetic or cruel manipulation (“Violence Against Women Information” 1). Women’s rights are constantly defiled through domestic violence, and yet it is still abounding and ubiquitous in developed countries. Indeed, every six days, a woman in Canada is brutally killed by the one whom she considered her loving male partner. With every year that passes, approximately 362,000 children are witness to violent parental episodes in Canada. Witnessing violence can disturb the development of children and can eventuate in
The Internet, in this sense, tends not to be feminist-friendly, and therefore, can be characterized as a masculinized space of gender inequity and patriarchy as feminist women like Ford and Sarkeesian are targeted by male harassers for their feminist viewpoints. As Jane states, “[online sexual harassment] is diagnostic not so much of a problem a particular man has with a particular woman… but of a broader social issue involving issues of gender equity, as well as tenacious sexism” (“‘Back to the kitchen, cunt’” 566). The anti-feminist backlash Ford and Sarkeesian received, then, is an effort to police their opinions which speaks to a larger problem of widespread misogyny and anti-feminism on the Internet. patriarchal space, not feminist-friendly, patrolling women’s opinions, stereotypes of
It seems that women have been raised to expect the injustices inflicted on them; therefore, forcing them to endure and accept the constant objectification they receive. It is true that women are subject to a higher risk of sexual assault: as a matter of fact, women experience sexual harassment during their everyday lives. Sexual harassment can be imposed in a number of ways, ranging from cat calling and stalking, all the way to rape. Although men do experience sexual assault, women are 10 times more likely to be the victims of sexual assault while the "overall [amount of] sexual assault offenders were most often men..." (Conroy and Cotter). Sexual Harassment takes place in the workforce, schools, on the streets, and generally within society.
Twenty-first century America faces many problems, and sexual harassment has clearly become a pervasive one. Sexual harassment is about a lack of respect that makes an individual feel violated, whether it is about their gender or the inappropriate manner in which they may be treated. Specifically, the workplace has become a very common place for sexual harassment to take place, and while inhibiting the work quality of employees; it is degrading to any victim of the illegal practice. Female journalists in particular have recently emerged as one group of employees that is frequently targeted by sexual harassment, and studies show that this is most definitely a growing problem.
Clark, C. S. (1991, August 9). Sexual harassment. CQ Researcher, 1, 537-560. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher
Sexual harassment in the workplace is a huge problem in recent history. It can happen to anyone and it can happen everywhere. It can affect all types of races, gender and age. Statistics today shows that more and more sexual harassment has become an issue due to the large number of cases presented. Mainstream media becomes consume covering sexual harassment because of the high profile cases. Sexual harassment becomes a topic on various TV shows, and on some major morning radio talk shows mostly everyday. Sexual harassment laws must be strengthened in order to fix what has become a serious problem today in the workplace.