Combating Violence Against Women By Alice Walker

Imagine being one of the black female victims in the plantation south, and not having the voice to revolt against immorality experienced frequently because of White southerner males. The unthinkable feeling of white males having full access to a female’s body without her consent, and using her for their personal amusement reveals that discrimination and inhumanity existed in the era before slavery was abolished. For this reason, Deborah Gray White wrote the book known as Ar’n’t I a Woman? to highlight the brutal actions of these white southerner males that made miserable circumstances for black slave population to survive. The way she brought forth the reality and the vicious mentality of the White southerner males manifest that the status

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, men do not hate women, in fact, the author shows women’s oppression and physical abuse are rooted in the society. For instance, wearing burqa symbolized the beginning of women’s oppression in the Islamic culture. In the novel, Rasheed says, ‘“I’m a different breed of man, Mariam. Where I come from, one wrong look, one proper word, and blood is spilled. Where I come from, a woman’s face is her husband’s business only. I want you to remember that. Do you understand?”’ (70). When Rasheed says these words to Mariam, it shows that Rasheed is traditionalist, has a conservative mind and is oppressing Mariam in every movements and words of her and one wrong mistake, she will be punish by him. In other words, his words means that Mariam is now a married woman, her body belongs only to him and it also shows she has no power and no equal rights as him. In Islamic culture, there’s a belief that men own women once they are married and that her everything belong only to them. Upon reading the novel, the readers can see that there are physical abuses which occurred to women and show that women are not allow to self-defend themselves from the abuse. In Chapter 8 Part 1, it foreshadows that physical abuse is a most common occurrence in the Islamic culture. For instance, the narrator says, “Mariam’s hands shook when she tried to slip the band onto his finger, and Rasheed had to help her. Her own band was a little tight, but Rasheed had no trouble forcing it over

The earliest literature reference to domestic violence against men can be found in the studies of Suzanne Steinmetz (1977,1978) entitled, “The Battered Husband Syndrome.” She hypothesizes that the incidents of husband-on-wife beatings rivals the incidents of wife perpetrated batterings, and that it was husband abuse not wife abuse that was underreported form of domestic violence. Steinmetz used two United States populations, a broadband nonrepresentative group and a random sample in New Castle, Delaware in the form of police reports and family surveys. The small study found only small differences in the percent of men and women who resorted to violence in the context of pushing, shoving, or hitting with hands or an object. This suggested early on that domestic violence is not a one way street. Husband beating is a serious issue and needs attention due to the fact that it is grossly underreported. Steinmetz received numerous criticism from her colleagues on this concept. In later studies, Murray Straus, Richard Gelles, and Suzanne Steinmetz (1980), authors of the book, Behind Closed Doors: Violence in The American Family, supports Steinmetz’s earlier studies in finding that women acted violently during marital affairs compared to a similar number of men who act violently in the United States. The study used 2,413 family surveys, finding in majority of them that the level of violence was a mutual or bilateral activity, with only 27% of cases finding that husbands were the

Alice Walker's The Color Purple is an excellent account of the life of poor black women who must suffer not only social ostracism due to gender and skin color but also women who suffer greatly at the hands of black men.  This is true in terms of infidelity, physical and verbal abuse, and sexual abuse.

Feminism has not changed today, but its focus has changed. Many women today have good education and employment opportunities just like men, as the early feminist fought for them. Now, after getting all these, men are now discriminating them and at times abusing them in order to undermine their hard work and potentiality. Men are doing all they can to undermine the success women have been able to acquired, however, today’s feminism is struggling to protect women and girls from domestic violence, sexual harassment, and rape as well as discrimination.

In the early 1900’s society 's attitude toward women wasn 't always a positive one. Women often faced sexism, discrimination, racism, and abuse which is demonstrated throughout the book the The Color Purple by Alice Walker. When these prevailing attitudes came face to face with the diverse personalities of the women in this book they not only affected each other but their society as a whole. These attitudes included but were not limited to disrespect, jealousy, selfishness,infidelity, and abuse. These women were forced to survive their own struggles in their own way and whether they chose to do it alone or together they did survive. Although it may have been weakened at times these women had unbreakable spirits that by the end were

In the essays ‘Violence against women’ by Nancy Mandell and ‘The fame of whose lives? Gender, race and entitlement in Canada’s National game’ by Mary Louise Adams, the authors discuss patriarchy; a term used to describe the society in which we live today, characterised by current/historic unequal power relations between women and men where women are systematically disadvantaged. (London Feminist Network , 2015) This takes place across almost every sphere of life but is particularly noticeable in women’s under-representation in key institutions, in decision-making positions and sports. Male violence against women is also a key feature of patriarchy. Girls are being socialised into a male controlled society. Mandell’s article concentrates on

I am a 38-year-old white American female. Some would argue that there is no better time to a woman in America – we have far more rights and privileges than either our colonial ancestors or women in many third world nations. Yet, even in my lifetime women have achieved milestones like the Violence Against Women Act, originally passed in 1994 but reauthorized and updated in 2013. Females in this country fight battles on many fronts that males, as a group, do not have to deal with on the same level. Women are sexually harassed, assaulted and raped far more than men. I myself have dealt with all three scenarios so far in my 38 years. Sexual harassment, sexual battery, and rape are all social problems that millions of American women face daily.

In modern day American culture we can see many citizens striving to achieve the American dream of a brighter future, but imagine having your dream destroyed based on your physical appearance and ethnical background. In the novel Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs, the author writes in her first point of views and recounts her experiences as a slave during this time in American history which helps brings the attention of social issues amongst African American slave. The main character, Linda, learns from late of her childhood the savagery of being a slave and the consequences she sees first hand of the hostilities her race has against her from her owners and the society around. Though many American citizens at this time of history felt it necessary to imply to all colored people that the white city folks were the dominate race of the nation and will show enmity to any who wish to be free. Society has been revealed through history to be a positive or negative to a certain class of people for the purpose of having the achievement of power through fear. The negativity from the general population to physical differences proved during this time period fear was the only consistent thought that ran the lifestyle to control the African American slaves. Within the context of the novel the first-hand view of experiencing segregation and rights taken away from Linda will help the reader understand fully the impact of many social issues at this time.

When I picked up The Color Purple, I didn’t think I’d immediately learn that Celie, as a fourteen year old, was raped routinely by who she thought was her father, had had two children who were taken from her overnight, and was made to believe that they were killed in the woods. These horrifying facts were declared in the first two pages and instantly incited my anger towards her father, Alphonso, and sympathy towards Celie. Her sexual assault was described so vividly that I felt as if I were present at the scene, yet unable to do anything to help. Besides suffering physical abuse, Celie is verbally abused, being constantly told, “You ugly. You skinny. You shape funny, You too scared to open your mouth to people…You not that good a cook

When one thinks about or describes slavery, it is common for it to be consider as harsh, spiteful, a harmful institution, and a treacherous act that dehumanizes African-Americans. Whenever there are tragic stories to learn more about this type of institution and see what slaves really went through during the Antebellum Era, people mostly find it shown from African-American men with their experiences with slavery. For example, Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave, Jim in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Django in Django Unchained, Kunta Kinte in Roots: The Saga of an American Family, and the story of Nat Turner in his courageous Slave Rebellion. These men slaves are known among the media and literature for generations, but what about the women figures in slavery, nevertheless, the mothers whose children are also the property of others? Considering the description of servitude, it is interesting to see how the severe elements of slavery can potentially affect the mother’s mind and threaten motherhood. This is seen and heavily stressed through Toni Morrison’s Gothic Fiction Beloved— an historical novel based on pregnant runaway slave, Margaret Garner — which is a slave narrative that follows the lives of the main characters: Sethe, a former and runaway slave from a plantation called Sweet Home, Denver, her daughter, together with Paul D, a wanderer who is Sethe’s love interest and a former slave from Sweet Home. An important event in this slave narrative that the reader

Women, Violence, And Resistance In chapter 54 Women, Violence, And Resistance by Melanie Kaye/ Kantrowitz. You will read about how women are abused. Should women be treated with violence such as being raped, beaten, physically and emotional abused? No women small or big should be abused, so when being attacked I believe if the women feels as if she can defend herself she should fight back.

Physical abuse is the use of physical force that results in bodily injury, physical pain, or impairment (“Types of Abuse” 1). In the 1900’s almost all men believed it was allowed, or okay, or what everyone does to abuse their women. Alice Walker resembled through her writing how men poorly treated their women. The Color Purple revolves around a 14 year old black woman named Celie. Celie is growing up in the South in the 1900’s with an abusive step-father Alphonso and a abusive husband identified as Mr.__. Celie and Mr.__ was a significant character relationship contributing to the key theme in The Color Purple. Their relationship had a great deal of abuse, sexual abuse, beatings,and hard work remarkable to the era. Alice Walker uses Celie’s character to send a message of sexual determination and liberation for women. As Well

Men all through the globe have always been the dominant sex ever since the early former ages. Domestic Violence is a critical issue which negatively impacts women in the world today. The novel The Color Purple deals with the narrator Celie, a black woman uneducated and poor, who gets physically abused by both her so called father and husband. Throughout the novel, it is shown how a powerless woman rises and stands up for herself after years of being mistreated. Over 85% of women experience or go through a domestic violence through friends or family. Domestic Violence has sadly played a big role in families, specifically women, and has led to many deaths. The Color Purple demonstrates how through out the world, thousands of incidents of

Black Feminism argues that sexism, class oppression and racism are linked together. Mainstream feminism that more than often benefits white women, strives to overcome class and gender oppression, however they do not recognise that race can discriminate against women also. Activist, Alice Walker states that black women experience a different kind of oppression when compared to their white counterparts. Professor of Sociology and social activist, Patricia Hill Collins summarises that Black feminism is ‘a process of self-conscious struggle that empowers women and men to actualise a humanist vision of community.’ Her quote welcomes individuals of any gender, whom understands black women’s struggle to fight with them. [Collins, 1991:39]