Lady Brett Ashley Analysis

In section 8, Christine asks Lady Reason for the purpose behind which men attack women. Is it caused by nature or hatred for the women race? Lady Reason replies with, “…some [men] have attacked women with good intentions, that is, in order to draw men who have gone astray away from the company of vicious and dissolute women, with whom they might be infatuated,” (Couser, 128). In order to comply with this theory men have sought out to attack all women and believed them all to be abominations.

Brett’s mannerism and language also defy the social norms that have come to be identified as proper for females. Referring to herself, she flippantly uses the word ‘Chap’, which is normally a reserve for males and masculine language (Hemingway, 32). This tells a lot about how she is challenging traditional masculine and feminine roles and character. Brett is challenging the social code where males are judged less harshly by society for having multiple partners as opposed to females. This sense of independence appears to be liberating to her as she has the choice to be with different men as loves without suppressing

Nonetheless, the disclosure that surrounds the rape of the woman does not break away from the customary views on violence especially towards women. In the entire movie, women are depicted and viewed as extremely traditional and passive. They are supposed to follow whatever is required from them. Gender through the movie exists in the similar way through which race exists. The society in the movie is largely patriarchy, and gender is unconsciously used for the purpose of justifying oppression and patriarchal

In the article entitled “The Longest War” from her 2014 book “Men Explain Things to Me”, Rebecca Solnit speaks about the issues surrounding the subject of male violence. She vehemently writes about how the plethora of male violence is being directed solely at women. She explains that a multitude of innocent women around the world are being abused by men. The amount of male violence taking place around the world is staggering; so much of it is happening everywhere. Solnit states the male gender is responsible for the deluge of violence, and that women in all parts of the world emotionally and physically suffer from it.

Through years of history women have been subjugated. They are seen as vehicles for reproduction and sexual objects. Yet this is a mentality that is directly related with moral theory. Since this is for the most part a male dominated society, women's views are often seen

The most grievous act on women, in my opinion, is withholding the right to education. This is a barbaric act upon women, and one of the cruelest ways to keep people in a lower “class” than where you are placed. By not allowing women to further their education, men are saying they are stupid beings who can’t fathom the information available to them.

There is a level of degree that the most violent types of crimes are more severe toward women. Solnit combines rape and violence, “We have an abundance of rape and violence against women in this country and on this earth though it’s almost never treated as a civil rights or even human rights issues.”

Across the globe, women of all walks of life are constantly oppressed by their male counterparts, shamed for actions frowned upon simply because of the double standards they are assigned since birth. In many cultures, women are viewed below men, and as a result they are forced to cater to all of the unfair expectations that men demand from them. One of the most popular and universal expectations is the belief that a woman must retain her virginity until marriage. In Half The Sky, women who disobeyed these unwritten laws of society faced the most extreme and harsh consequences. In one instance, a girl named Du’a Aswad went out late with a boy, and didn’t return until the morning. It was immediately assumed that she had slept with him, despite

In society, there is a lot of violence, in particular, violence against women. Women are very often murdered, far more than is discussed. We never hear about most of these cases, simply because there are so many of them. 25% of women have experienced some sort of domestic violence, and 20% have faced sexual violence, making having faced violence almost normal. The notion that violence is something normal is very dangerous, as it is not only harmful to survivors of violence, but it also makes it more likely that more people will be victims of violence as perpetrators can get away with it more easily. Though violence against women is not talked about enough, our flaws as a society are reflected in literature. An example of an instance in which violence against women appears in literature is in John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men. Said instance is the death of “Curley’s Wife”. She is blamed for her own death, and she is clearly not valued as a whole person, no one reacts emotionally to her death. Victim blaming leads to the normalization of violence and the devaluing of women.

Today in America’s law system there is great injustice occurring against women who kill their male aggressors in self-defense. Our culture and society have taken away the doctrine of self-defense away from neglected women, and they are unable to justify their actions in court. Society has become oblivious to women violence, and instead of providing support to women society shames the women who step forward. Victim blaming, saying these women murder out of jealous rage and being portrayed by news outlets as being cold blooded killers, and other sorts of mislabeling have been given to these innocent victims at all levels of the system. Gender stereotypes pushed by our media and society set an expectation that women are incapable of defending themselves and that she should must go to a male

Barbara Perry’s article “Doing Gender and Doing Gender Inappropriately” addresses violence and gender, and how gender is influenced through the way it is perceived in society. The construction of gender comes in polar extremes, with masculine dominant men and feminine subordinate women. Gendered violence is used to control women as a class. It is a systematic tool used by men to reinforce gender norms and patriarchal ideas of masculine superiority and feminine inferiority. It “terrorizes the collective by victimizing the individual”. Like any dichotomy, it has scripts, and to deviate from these scripts will leave you labeled as ‘unnatural’ and ‘immoral’. These scripts “constrain everything from modes of dress and social roles to ways of expressing emotion and sexual desire”. In Judith Lorber’s “A World Without Gender” we are introduced to the possibility of eliminating gender and how “degendering [would] undercut the patriarchal and oppressive structure of Western Societies”.

Throughout history, violent women and women with violent intent have starkly emerged from many countries, carving their niches in myths and legends. The creation of these stories suggests that men began to notice lethality in feminine charm centuries back.

In some societies, women in the judicial process have very few rights that are the same as men, and their punishment seems to be much greater. Treatment by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and by other groups such as the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood all contribute to how women are treated legally. Zohreh Arshadi asserts that in countries such as Iran, "The Islamic punishments have encouraged a culture of violence against women...The fact that men receive a lighter punishment if they commit a violence against women undoubtedly encourages such violence. We saw how women could be killed with impunity during alleged adultery. Stoning to death for adultery, although technically admissible for both sexes, has also been carried out mainly against women” (Arshadi 2012). It is in countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and some non-Middle Eastern countries where the Qur’an is taken as a literal word and law, and there is constituted into actual state law. This means that certain texts from the Qur’an are used to treat women violently. For example a passage in the Qur’an states: Hadith Muslim (4:1982)  The Prophet said, “I saw Hell also. No such (abominable) sight have I ever seen as that which I saw today; and I observed that most of its inhabitants were women. They said: Messenger of Allah, on what account is it so? He said: For their ingratitude or disbelief

Feminist analysis has argued that the patriarchal system of gender inequalities which empowers men and oppresses women underpins sexual violence and that stratification and social control are fundamental elements in the sexual domination of women Brownmiller (1975:4).

The purpose of this paper is to explore patriarchal values that reinforce violence towards women in intimate partner relationships. This paper argues that patriarchy and the social construction of masculinity reproduce male violence against women. The following sub-issues that that will be discussed are patriarchy, capitalism, the religion of Islam, and the construction of masculinity and femininity. All the sub-issues encompass patriarchy values which allows inmate partner violence.