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An Elderly woman, normally a target in an unsafe neighborhood, carries a satchel of cash. It is the receipt of today's betting and the neighborhood knows robbing her would result in punishment that would be swift and certain, unlike the legal system. The retaliation preserves the mob's reputation and honor. The threat precludes an attack in the first place. Ed Vega's "Spanish Roulette" is about retaliation to preserve honor after a rape. The story is about Sixto, a peace-loving Spanish poet. Lino, a local gang member and drug dealer, rapes Sixto’s sister Mandy. Sixto discusses the situation with his roommate Willie. If Sixto retaliates, he will lose his peaceful soul and any reason for living. He feels if he does not retaliate, he might as well be dead. The police and courts cannot resolve the issue. The family must retaliate to preserve their honor. Retaliation deters future victimization. The honor culture Sixto lives in demands revenge for his sister’s rape and for her loss of chastity. “The Role of Gender and Ethnicity in Perceptions of Rape and Its Aftereffects” by L Schneider and "The Two Faces Of Revenge: Moral Responsibility and The Culture Of Honor" by Tamler. Sommers help me better understand in “Spanish Roulette” how, in a Spanish honor culture, rape is personal not police business, rape stains the honor of both family and the victim and how retaliation is thought to be required to avoid further victimization. Rape is a crime of power, violence, and gratifications. Brownmiller tells us, "Public opinion perceives various motives (e.g., power, violence, sexual gratification) as underlying bases for rape (e.g., Brownmiller 1975; Donat and D’ Emilio 1992)" (Schneider 410). In "Spanish Roulette", power is the motivation... ... middle of paper ... ... Lira, L. R., Koss, M. P., & Russo, N. F. (1999). Mexican American women’s definitions of rape and sexual abuse. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 21, 236–265. Merida K (2006) In or out of the game? Washington Post. December 31 Nisbett R, Cohen D (1996) Culture of honor. Westview Press 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. Sommers, Tamler. "The Two Faces Of Revenge: Moral Responsibility And The Culture Of Honor." Biology & Philosophy 24.1 (2009): 35-50. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. Vega, Ed “Spanish Roulette” Reading Literature and Writing Argument. Ed. James, Missy and Merickel, Alan P. 5th ed. Boston: Longman, 2013. 417-423. Print.
The situation with Mandy in Ed Vega’s short story “Spanish Roulette”, portrays a young women’s innocence being stolen and the distress that was brought upon the family thereafter. The narrator focuses on Sixto Andrade, the brother of Mandy, and how he deals with the situation. Although Mandy’s character is not directly introduced, she is significant because she is the purpose of the plot and she impacts the actions of her brother.
Azulejo: Anthology & Guide to the AP Spanish Literature Course (2 ed., ). Wayside Publishing. Cortazar, Julio. “La Noche Boca Arriba.” Literatura.
Cross-cultural research has shown that rape is most common in cultures that are dominated by males and violence. This means cultures in which males dominate the political decisions and cultures adhering to the male ideology of toughness, interpersonal violence and war (Groth 7). In a culture of people with more traditional or sexist gender role, attitudes are more tolerant of rape than are people with more nontraditional attitudes. Traditional men are more likely to report that they would commit rape if they knew they would not be caught; some researchers have found that a traditional man is much more likely to commit a rape than a nontraditional man is. Many attitudes in our culture perpetuate rape, for example: A husband is entitled to have sex with his wife," "A 'real man' never passes up a chance to have sex," and, "A women who 'leads a man on' deserves what she gets (Growth 7). “ Some media depictions may promote rape. Many movies make violence appear attractive and some movies convey myths about rape. Such as slasher films that make violence seem exciting, or movies suggesting that women like to be forced to have sex or that women's only value...
Kelly, Liz (1987) “The Continuum of Sexual Violence.” In: Women, Violence and Social Control, edited by J. Hanmer and M. Maynard. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press International: 46-60.
One of the most horrible things that has erupted from the subjugation of women is rape culture. Rape culture is the downplaying of the crime of rape to appease the violator, the accusation that the victim made a choice that led to their rape, or even jokes that suggest rape. According to Jessica Valenti’s, “In Rape Tragedies, the Shame Is Ours,” in today's world many people give in to rape culture by participating in these acts that somehow change our mindsets into believing that, “it is more shameful to be raped than to be a rapist”. Once ...
Sociological Analysis of Sexual Assault This essay will examine the social and cultural conditions, within the macro-diachronic and micro-synchronic theoretical models, that intensify or perpetuate sexual assault. I have chosen only one concept from each model because these are the only concepts that I feel that I can use to most accurately and comprehensively depict causes and reasons for why sexual assault is deeply entrenched in our social structure. I will thus explore, from these ideological viewpoints, some of the motivations and circumstances that lead offenders to sexual assault. I will also fuse some of the historical attitudes from which today's concepts have evolved into our contemporary understanding of these social phenomena. However, it’s important that we look beyond both offenders' motivations and history, and to the greater sociological view, if we are to correctly reconstruct acts of violence such as sexual assault.
Many of the attitudes, beliefs, and mistaken ideas about rape have been with us for centuries. By looking at myths, such as “women ask for it,” and “it would do some women good to get raped,” from a historical perspective, lead us for better understanding how they evolved. Women are still seen as the property of men, are protected as such. Men and women are still taught to occupy very different roles in today’s world. Men are usually more aggressive, and women are seen as passive. (Vogelman) This socialization process is changing, but slowly.
As the term “rape culture” grows in popularity, it is imperative to break it down to understand what it actually means. According to a report by the Marshall University Women’s Center, “Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture”. Rape culture is supplemented by the objectification of women’s bodies, glamorization of sexual violence, as well as many other saddening realities in society. A sad outcome of rape culture in todays society is that women are often seen as the one at fault in rape. Commonly excuses are immediately made for them men, such as blaming the girl for being too intoxicated, blaming the girl for the way she was dressed, or even blaming the girl for speaking out about it at all. A perfect example of rape culture in the media took place in Steubenville, Ohio. A 16-year-old girl, incapacitated by alcohol, was gang raped by two high school football players who then shared photos of the assault on their social networking sites and with their friends. Immediately, mainstream news and media began to blame the victim saying she should not have chosen to get so intoxicated in the first place. The two boys were given the minimum allowed sentence of 1 and 2 years. This court case caused an uproar and a
Wyatt, Gail . "Sociocultural Context of African American and White American Women's Rape." Welcome to the Medical University of South Carolina. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2011. .
This typology involves either a passive woman who abuses due to an abusive male partner or a male-female couple who both equally abuse (Vandiver & Kercher). There are many issues involved with these typologies. The first issue is that the male becomes primarily responsible for the abuse instead of the female. In the situation of a passive woman whose abusive partner forces her to abuse, the victims of the abuse are most often their own children. In situations of domestic abuse, most women worry about the safety of their children or others before their personal safety. This makes it difficult to believe that a woman, even under severe abuse, would harm her children. In the case of a team who takes part in the abuse equally, when coupled with the idea that women are not physically capable of violence, the male gets burdened with the responsibility for the crime. The titles of the typologies themselves place the largest emphasis on the male and hence unconsciously place the responsibility of the crime on the male partner. Comparatively the male typologies use a more gender neutral term, “gang rape,” which makes all participating offenders responsible for the crime regardless of their level of participation. The criminal justice system overlooks these female offenders because of the idea that they
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
According to Marshall University, Rape Culture is defined as “an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in media and popular culture.” In American society, it is not hard to find examples of rape culture. In popular movies, music, and current events there is an undeniable notion of victim blaming, and sympathizing with male perpetrators. People have begun to use the term rape as a casual adjective. For example “I just raped him in that game,” could be used to describe two people playing a game and one winning easily against the other. American society uses pop culture and current events to promote and justify the prominent rape culture.
Many of the attitudes, beliefs, and mistaken ideas about rape have been with us for centuries. By looking at myths, such as “women ask for it,” and “women secretly enjoy rape,” from a historical perspective, can lead us for better understanding how they evolved. Much stems back to the idea that 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 a...
The society we live in is rape-conducive, rape-friendly, if you will. Despite the anger I feel joining those two words together, I know the sad paradox holds within it a great deal of truth. We are a violent society that has shrouded rape in mystery and shame. To stop this nightmare’s venomous crusades, all people must wage a private war to eradicate their own acceptance of the savage crime. While it is only a minority of men that actually commit rape, it is everyone’s silence that tells them it’s ok.