Rape and Sexual Harassment: The Intersectional Experiences of Racism and Sexism for Minorities

African American women are stereotyped as the “Jezebel” archetype. African American women’s historical background causes the

Rebecca Solnit’s article focuses on the ways male violence negatively affects women. Harassment from men directed at women keep women from speaking up, and many women are living in constant fear of male violence. They live in a constant state of fear because they are aware male violence is taking place around them. Women are also afraid of potential male violence because men openly express authoritative behavior. She explains men feel they have the validity to control and abuse women. Specifically, a man will approach a woman with the expectation that the woman will return the man with a sexual favor. For example, “a woman was stabbed after she rebuffed a man’s sexual advances while she walked in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood late Monday night…”

Sexual assault is a major factor in the oppression of women. Take Hollywood, for example. Harvey Weinstein has only recently come under fire for his repeatedly assaulting women throughout his years working as a film producer. Weinstein would lure women into his hotel room or office under the guise of discussing movies and then attempt to assault them. To prevent women from exposing him, he threatened to blacklist anyone if they ever said anything. His victims included Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, whom Weinstein assaulted when they were young

All African-Americans have been portrayed in stereotypical roles since their arrival into American society for the entertainment and amusement of others. Many people find it difficult to appreciate the diversity of the African American women. So instead of trying to do this, they create identities based on negative stereotypes. There are several negative stereotypes associated with the African American woman. The Mammy archetype is the one chosen to be analyzed in this essay. Collins described the mammy as “-the faithful, obedient domestic servant. Created to justify the economic exploitation of house slaves and sustained to explain Black women’s long-standing restriction to domestic service…” (72) She is commonly seen trying to soothe

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 completed the task of bringing sexual assault to the forefront of discussion, it failed to encompass the central issues concerning the culture of sexual assault: societal misperceptions, the victims, 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 America, 1 out of 6 women fall victim to rape at some point in their lives—completed or not (“Victims of Sexual Violence” 1). However, this is only one form of sexual assault that women are forced to face. Groping and other non-consensual, sexual acts are also examples of sexual assault (“Sexual Assault” 1).. Many perpetrators of sexual assault roam free, practically unaffected and likely to commit another similar act, while the woman could feel the effects of this event for her entire life. This problem affects women from around the globe—and it’s time that we put an end to it, because if we don’t, who will? If boys were to be taught how and how not to treat women in their early years, sexual assault would not be as prevalent, thus, women, including us, would not have to worry as much about enduring this kind of torment.

The Western world’s conquest and domination of Asia is the driving source of sexual desire for East Asian women. To understand how the objectification and fetishization of East Asian women is harmful, one must traced it roots and understand how it began. The stereotypes assigned to East Asian women are rooted from the violence of wartime. The stereotypes live through the mass media’s re-imagination by books, movies, musicals and operas. East Asian women will find no peace for as long as these hyper-sexed stereotypes live.

Harassers can do a lot more than just physically hurt their victims. The embarrassment, shame, anxiety and other emotional problems that inevitably occur from being sexual harassed is disturbing and infuriating. Sexual harassment occurs anywhere a person could go; is that not a scary thought to people, especially women, everywhere? Knowing this statement is true makes sexual harassment an injustice that needs to be stopped.

Contrary to popular belief, racism and sexism are not mutually exclusive. More often than not, one can find racial discrimination closely connected to gender discrimination and vice versa. Kelly Brown Douglas, author of Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective, makes this connection evident in her chapter “Stereotypes, False Images, Terrorism: The White Assault upon Black Sexuality”. She discusses elements of gender and sexual stereotypes involved in racism and how they are still a detriment to black women and men today.

The media is often the only form of culture that many Americans are subjected to. Consequently, many stereotypes are formed from that medium. These stereotypes include the interfering Asian American woman that cannot keep her nose out of other people?s business. The Asian woman is also supposedly sexually active, exotic, overly feminine and eager to please. This character is termed the ?China Doll,? and appears countless times in popular movies. Hollywood tends to characterize Asian women as prostitutes, yet fails to portray the hardships these women face such as trying to support their families. Asian American women are also depicted as passive and indecisive, and often times are treated as though they want to have sex with white men, even when they are verbally not agreeing. ?Dragon Lady? refers to an Asian

African Americans girls and women have always been exploited and trafficked for more than 300 years now. African- American women have been stereotyped as being genetically oversexed and very fertile. Slave women were too often framed as the embodiment of sexual exploitation and came to signify the modern "Jezebel" who was a symbol of lust, sexual immorality. This stereotype created a "gendered symbol of sexual racism" and considered African American women worthless of authorized protection from sexual exploitation (Marshall.2010). During slavery, sexual exploitation of black women served as the first labeled used to justify rape, sexual assault, and abuse. In particular, white men used the Jezebel stereotype to signify black women and girls as

The domestic violence dilemma in the African American Community stems back from the enslavement of Africans. A counselor must be aware of these historical facts to understand the impact of such events. Enslavement impact on contemporary relationships plays a significant role in the history of domestic violence. Enslaved black women performed the same tasks as their male counterparts while still fulfilling traditional female roles. Therefore, necessarily, the stereotypes for black women were opposite those for white women, and directly correlated with the 'bad girl' stereotypes. The prevailing stereotypes of black women do not allow them to fit within the stereotype of the "good girl" or "victim," making interactions with the justice system

Women around the world are sexually assaulted and victimised, with lack of support systems resulting in them being silenced, leaving them with long term effects such as depression and other mental illnesses and fears of being attacked again. The women that are sexually abused feel that they're being targeted again, either when they're talking about it and receive negative feedback, the fact that they have a higher chance of being assaulted again, and that the fear of the court procedures that they'd have to experience. Most women don't report being raped or having been sexually assaulted because it's such a traumatic event, they fear further injury, fear the court procedures, and they don't want to talk about it, leading them to not get the

Women of different races, age groups, and lifestyles have dealt with sexual, physical, and psychological abuses from history until today.

It is quite interesting to know the history where is the over-sexualization of Asian women came from. This idea was the result of US wars in Asia and Asian women have to provide comfort to men in the army. It is sad to see that some of the Asian women back then have to be forced in prostitutions or willingly do it because poverty. Furthermore, the hyper-sexualization of Asian women that has been presented in films created bad image among Asian women. Our book Asian America Through the Lens listed Madame Butterfly and Miss Saigon (1991) as examples where a soldier has a relationship with Asian prostitute. The history about how Asian women become a sexual symbol will always be around, and the persistent portrayal of this in films can negatively