Disgrace is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as a “loss of reputation or respect as the result of a dishonourable action”. The word Disgrace has two subtly different meanings- it can either be used as a noun or a verb. A person can be in disgrace (noun) or person can disgrace themselves or others (verb). Either way it implies a dishonourable event occurred that casts a shadow over a person or a group of people. A dictionary definition cannot truly convey what the meaning of ‘disgrace’ is. As with many words in the English language, ‘disgrace’ has a highly elusive nature. This is caused in part by the negative connotations associated with it and, as a result, the subtle nuances that it evokes when used.
In the context of the first 50 pages the title could refer to the act and aftermath of the affair that takes place between David Lurie and Melanie Isaacs. In fact, Lurie’s ex-wife says that the event “is disgraceful from beginning to end. Disgraceful and vulgar too.” (45). Allow me to refer back to the definition of disgrace as a “loss of reputation or respect as the result of a dishonourable action”. We see each aspect of the definition in this event. It has indeed brought Lurie a loss of respect and reputation. Melanie loses her respect for him (37), students stop attending his class, and colleagues act cold to him (42). This affair eventually leads him to lose his job.
The title could also refer the state Lurie is living in- the state of growing old and still pursuing younger women. Coetzee suggests in the very first chapter that “…ageing is not a graceful business,” (9). After having disappointing sex with a colleague, Lurie remarks that castrating himself would be “an ugly sight, but no more ugly, from a certai...
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...up rape culture.
Another jarring quote from Lurie occurs when he is trying to seduce Melanie for the first time. He claims that “’… a woman’s beauty does not belong to her alone… She has a duty to share it.’” (16) This idea that a woman has a “duty to share” her beauty with men is another concept reminiscent of rape culture.
It’s no great mystery why my peers and I couldn’t immediately identify the reason that Melanie stayed silent for so long. We students, living in Canada, aren’t as exposed to rape culture as much as those living in countries such as South Africa and India where that ideology permeates every institution.1
1It is interesting to note that many countries where rape is endemic were at one point colonized. I wonder if there is a correlation between being a country being colonized and a country adapting a nonchalant attitude to sexual assault.
Schneider L, Mori L, Lambert P, Wong A. The Role of Gender and Ethnicity in Perceptions of Rape and Its Aftereffects. Sex Roles [serial on the Internet]. (2009, Mar), [cited March 16, 2014]; 60(5/6): 410-421. Available from: SocINDEX with Full Text.
...ses a threat of humiliation and maltreating from other individuals that can have a detrimental effect on their lives. A person can go from being a normal school student to a laughing stock on a popular social network or even trend from a emotionally stable individual to a deranged, depressed critter who now hides in the shadows of society hoping never to be revealed. The informative thought of the re-occurrence of public shaming throughout history from Bennett allows the reader to question if this is an issue that is perpetual and something that will never go away. Furthermore, the author conveys the idea that publicizing oneself can be a burden; the darkside of Internet fame. Wrapping up her article, Bennett portrays a warning to the reader stating, “Shame...will always be with you”(115). Harassment from Internet fame can alter a person's life-forever.
Another issue that the writer seemed to have swept below the carpet is the morality of women. First, women seemed to have been despised until they started excelling in mass advertising. Also, the author seems to peg the success of the modern woman to clothing and design. This means that women and cloths are but the same thing. In fact, it seems that a woman’s sex appeal determine her future endeavours, according to the author. It is through this that I believe that the author would have used other good virtues of women to explain
Someone’s mistakes can easily be debuted online, making the levels of public shame go beyond its limits. In Source C, “Is the Internet a Mob without Consequence?”, there is an article about an adult who got a massive amount of hate for an inappropriate tweet. In the document, the adult named Ms. Sacco received intense reactions and consequences: “Yet as soon as it was clear that she had made similar comments in the past, the Internet turned into a voracious and vengeful mob. Ms. Sacco was tried and judged guilty in a public square of millions and soon attacked in a way that seemed worse than her original statement. Within hours, people threatened to rape, shoot, kill, and torture her.” (Bilton 9-13). With the negative feedback, the lady realized her tweet was an awful mistake; however, when dealing with the internet, there is no “deleting” mistakes. Also, being shamed to the extent of having millions watch her in a public square and then threaten to do so many wrong actions like killing is just brutality wrong. The responses following the tweet are in fact far more disgusting than the single tweet posted which started the entire breakout. Furthermore, with the rise of social media, Monica Lewinsky also had her fair share in being harassed and humiliated online. Monica shares with the audience, “But the attention and judgement that I received, not the
Rape can happen to anyone. Women from different cultures, races, ages, and economic level are all vulnerable. It does not matter who you are or where you live, although women of lowest status are most vulnerable to rape, and so are Hispanic and African American women. (An...
Language is important. “I felt a ‘little’ raped,” is different from “I felt raped,” and even more from “he raped me.” In order to protect victims effectively, we can´t point the finger hysterically in all directions, however this week the trending topic has been the culture rape exemplified in the movie Last Tango in Paris. Any person, but most especially any woman, should abstain from disagreeing or accept the public consequences.
According to the SACHA Sexual Assault Center, rape culture involves everyday phenomena that “make violence against women and sexual coercion seem so normal that people believe that rape is inevitable” (“What is rape culture,” n.d.). Common examples of rape culture include: telling women to always travel in groups at night, asking survivors what they were wearing or if they were drinking during the time of the assault, and ignoring or stigmatizing males who are sexually assaulted (Ray, 2013). On college campuses, rape culture can contribute to the underreporting of sexual assaults, as survivors may be ashamed or afraid of humiliation. Furthermore, the presence of rape myths perpetuates the overall rape culture by shaping public opinion towards blaming survivors and discounting the actions of offenders. Largely cited myths, such as women falsely reporting rape to protect their reputations or because they are angry with the accused perpetrator, are based on a kernel of truth that is unrepresentative of the realities surrounding these issues (Burnett et al., 2009). Rape culture is alive and well on college campuses, despite being a broader societal issue. While this socially ingrained behavior is difficult to reverse, universities are major institutions that must accept partial responsibility for the perpetuation of rape culture and consequently need to devise programs for change that circumvent this erroneous
While there are many problems in the world, like poverty, famine, cancer, and an abundance of carbon emissions into the planet, there is one that has been in the back of my mind for quite some time: rape culture. This issue is vastly popular in the world of bloggers and social networking sites, including Tumblr. It’s slowly progressing into an important issue that the public is acknowledging. Reviewing the issue’s historical, social, political, cultural and economic perspectives will entail a rape culture’s controversy. Rape culture is an issue that has gained momentum through the feminist movement within the last couple of decades.
There are many ways to define a man, but they get their definition from the actions they uphold. Some men are well respected because of the success they have earned over time. While others earn respect not from their level of success, but from the hard work they have done over the years. Respect means a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements. This deep admiration can be easily taken away by a dishonorable act done by a man. In the Wife of Bath a knight carry’s out an atrocious act that causes the respect citizens have for him to greatly change, while in The Men We Carry in our Minds have earned respect over the years with hard work and dedication to provide for their family.
Susan Griffin’s Rape: The All-American Crime touches on many issues within American society. She begins by recounting how she was taught to be afraid of strange men from such a young age that she had not yet learned what it was she was so afraid of, and then goes into her experience with harassment, an experience shared by every woman at some point in her life. Griffin recounts the belief that all rapists are insane and the proof that they are just normal men and dispels the myth that rape is normal activity that is prohibited by society. However, she goes on to clarify that our culture views rape: “as an illegal, but still understandable, form of behavior” (Griffin 514). It seems that the wrongness of rape is determined by the situation in
It is not a topic that is brought up often, especially at schools or at gatherings, yet it is crucial that everyone be educated, or at least informed on a topic that affects women every day. “Given that sexual violence continues to occur at high rates in the United States, it is vital that we understand attitudes and cultural norms that serve to minimize or foster tolerance of sexual violence” (Aosved, 481). Growing rates of sexual violence goes to prove that it is not taken seriously by many, especially when myths excuse the actions of the perpetrator and instead guilt victims into thinking they are responsible for the horrible act. Burt (1980), in her article titled, “Cultural myths and support for rape” attempts to make sense of the importance of stereotypes and myths, defined as prejudicial, stereotypes, or false beliefs about rape, rape victims and rapists- in creating a climate hostile to rape victims (Burt, 217). Examples of rape myths are such sayings as “only bad girls get raped”; “women ask for it”; “women cry rape” (Burt, 217). This only goes to prove that rape myths against women always blame and make it seem like it is the women’s fault she was raped and that she deserved it for “acting” a certain way. McMahon (2007), in her article titled, “Understanding community-specific rape myths” explains how Lonsway and Fitzgerald (1994) later described rape myths as “attitudes and beliefs that are generally
It is very troubling to hear that 1 in 5 women in University will be victims of sexual assault, and even more so that less than 60% of cases get reported. The purpose of my paper is to put emphasis on how important it is that more people be informed about rape culture, but to also explain how men are just as important in working towards prevention as are women.
Montagu's “Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to her Husband” opens the discourse upon repressed female sexuality with a very plain statement that “Too, too severely laws of honour bind / The weak submissive sex of womankind” (Montagu ll. 9-10). The speaker describes women as weak and submissive, using the very concepts society uses to maintain the binds upon women to reinforce the truth of the statement. The speaker is clear that honour is the tool used to maintain the oppression, as society self-monitors and moderates individuals. In Wycherly's The Country Wife honour is also to blame for controlling women's sexuality. Horner observes that women of honour “are only chary of their reputations, not their persons, and 'tis scandal they would avoid, not men” (Wycherly 183). This reinforces the representation of honour as binding and controlling women's behaviour. Further, it introduces the concept of female sexual desire, in suggesting that women ultimately avoid affairs due to the societal repercussions.
Last week the White House released a short, celebrity packed, 60-second public service announcement (PSA) on the topic of sexual assault. 1 is 2 Many addressed those who are in control of preventing sexual assault as its intended audience was those who can put a stop to sexual violence: the perpetrators or would-be offenders. Although this one minute announcement completes the task of bringing sexual assault to the forefront of discussion, it fails to encompass central issues of rape culture: societal perceptions, the victim, and the justice system. Sexual assault is a phenomenon that has been around for centuries. The culture of sexual assault is rooted in both legal practices and societal perceptions; in order for its reforms to be effective, they need to target both aspects of rape culture, as one factor by itself is not enough to maintain reforms and foster needed change. The culture of rape—how it is defined, its victims and its offenders (and how they are perceived by society), myths, and its laws—has changed throughout the years, and in particular during the first wave of legal reforms in the 1970’s. Although these legal and social changes are improvements from past conditions, they can be further developed and expanded.
Bayley, Alex. "Rape Culture." Geek Feminism Wiki. Wikia, 9 June 2009. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. .