Sexual Assault And Societal Roles

The fight against sexism is not a new fight. Women have been fighting for equal rights, as well as fighting for their lives, culture, and values to be just as important as men's. On August 18, 1920, women were granted the right to vote; but this was only the beginning. From then to now, the role of women in society has significantly changed due to women standing up for their rights at protests and rallies, as well as on social media. While “The Good Wife’s Guide” focused on the promotion of the traditional gender role of women and defined appropriate emotions for women, “The Revolt of ‘Mother,’” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, represents the start of the resistance of the traditional gender role of women that we see in society today.

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.

Start blaming the system, not the victim. Sexual assault is a crime that is very common, yet the punishment perpetrators receive is not as harsh as it needs to be to reduce the occurrence of these crimes. Laws concerning sexual crimes have been edited over decades to be stricter however, sex offenders typically receive little or no punishment. Sexual Assault is defined as any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient (“Sexual Assault”). Victims of sexual assault are often blamed as the reason for the crime being committed while the blame is taken away from the offender. Harsher punishment must be enacted on sex offenders because the victims suffer conflict from the crime throughout their

To this day the women’s suffrage movement ignites women in the present to keep those right burning. Alice Paul and her fellow women suffrages demonstrated through speeches, lobbying and petitioning Congressional Committees, with parades, picketing and demonstrations, and with arrest that lead to imprisonment. These women express courage that women still uphold for years after their legacy has passed on, such as the article “Women’s Strike for Equality,” by Linda Napikoski, in the demonstration that was held on August 26, 1970 on the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage. As well as an article “Women to Protest For Equality Today,” by United Press that talks about on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the women’s suffrage and “declared war on firms that Damage the Image,” of the fair sex. Alice Paul, set the stage for inspiring women to fight for their rights everywhere across the world.

University of Tennessee Knoxville was recently involved in a lawsuit for enabling athletes to sexually assault women by silencing the victims and failing to provide disciplinary actions or even investigation onto the accused. While this is a recent case, this is not the first time this sort of behavior involving a school has been brought into light. One in four women will be sexually assaulted by the end of their undergraduate career (Posluszny). Sexual assault happens throughout society no matter what the gender or age, seeming to be in increasing epidemic over the last few years. While the idea of sexual assault is largely met with public hostility in theory, actions often contradict this. This contradiction lies heavily in a culture that is unwelcoming to the victims and often leads to the perpetrators being tolerated. The existence of rape culture in western society occurs due to the preservation of violent media, patriarchal standards, and the state of the criminal justice system. This culture cannot be improved until we confront each of these problems to their roots.

For centuries women had had to bow to men they were taught never to speak unless called upon or spoken to. That their sole purpose in life was to be a homemaker; a servant to the men in their lives fathers, brothers, sons. As time progressed women began to fight for their right to receive equal rights, education and vote. But that wasn’t enough in the year 2013 women still made eighty cents to every man’s dollar but that all changed one day. Women who were sick of being oppressed had risen up against the male chauvinism within society of the united states.The first measure was to take all men out of all positions of decision-making power immediately, and of any kind of social, professional position whatsoever. The men of society were

It provided a sense of unity and resolve that impacted women, men and children in multiple cities and taught people of all statuses to not be silenced during a time of oppression and international fear. After the President’s misogynistic comments terrorized women in the United States, the Women’s March on Washington was a “clap back” towards the office, defending angry women of every race. Unlike Donald Trump, 3.3 million people in multiple cities do not use violence and sexual harassment to condone good behavior. Our society, unlike the office, strives to create a safe, healthy, environment free of all forms of violence against our

Sexual assault policy in the United States as it stands is clearly inadequate for protecting the physical wellbeing of men and women from sexual assault. Layering of policy serves a s a Band-Aid on a social wound much too large to be contained and the rise of sexual assault as a public problem reiterates the need for greater legislation and policy to protect everyone from becoming prey to the crime of sexual assault. While eyes focus on the (disproven) rise of violence in the United States, and turn to gun control, other violent crimes are forgotten. Sexual Assault has seen several cases of policy failure that actors have tried to salvage through the act of policy layering and have not significantly resolved the problem.

Women have expectations. Society wants women to act appropriately. Women stereotypically do not speak their minds. Poet, Ana Castillo, uses her poem “Women Don’t Riot” to showcase her frustration towards women who continue to stay silent about harm brought onto them. For example, “raped, / beaten, / harassed, / … / won’t ever rise up in arms” (Castillo 26-32), displaying her frustration towards women who continuously listen to a society that says to stay quiet. Castillo develops anger towards the women who bow down to ridiculous expectations. She believes that if women stand united and fight together, society’s ignorance might fade, leading to a lower risk of sex crime. The world wants women to keep being afraid of

The rights and opportunities are different but the feelings in the hearts of those fighting and living to support women’s rights have never changed. Some of the issues women are fighting today are poverty and hunger with the largest number of homeless being women and children. The continuing wage gap and the fact that women make 77 cents to every dollar men do, violence against women, with the staggering statistic that there are 270,000 rapes or sexual assaults a year. Women are treated poorly in prison with 70% subject to rape, extortion, and groping and denied medical resources and treatment, as well as human trafficking and sex slavery, which has a 32 billion dollar annual income. (Top 18 Issues Challenging Women

Our inspiration for the 2017 History Day topic was when we heard about “taking a stand” being the theme, we immediately thought of women’s suffrage. It was (and still is) a major topic of conversation, and has impacted history in a way that has shaped women’s and girl’s lives for the better. Women’s suffrage was an act that has completely changed history, and still inspires women to take a stand today. Since women of the past fought for our freedom, we now have the inspiration and strength to keep fighting. The women’s suffrage movement is a topic that people always think of when they hear “taking a stand,” therefore it is a topic that we felt we had to cover. These important reasons for taking a stand is what inspired us to chose this topic.

“We shall overcome,” said one. “I am woman, hear me roar,” said another. Posters encompassed the streets of New York. Marching in the crowd with others advocating for equality, I became a part of history. The Women’s March on Washington and other cities proved my grandmother correct in what she once told me, “Women will change the world.”

Sexual assault has been huge problem on college campus. College female students have been targets of sexual assault acts, According to Robin Gray “Between 20% and 25% of women will experience a completed and/or attempted rape during their college career.” Sexual assault is when is a crime to knowingly cause another person to engage in an unwanted sexual act by force or threat. There are laws that protect women in all types of setting from being victims of sexual assault. The government had made some changes to the laws of sexual assault over the past decade to protect the girls and women so justice can be served. The president Obama has been enforcing a law for the young women in colleges.

On September 7th, 1968, hundreds of women gathered on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, carrying signs and singing songs that all had the main theme of protesting the Miss America Pageant. Later, they threw items of women’s oppression in what they called a freedom trash can. While the women who were apart of the Miss America Protest worked to defy society’s oppression and standards, they also marked one of the first explorations in the feminist movement. This certain protest helped to pave the way for many more women to come and impacted many of the basic ideas of fighting society’s norms.

Sexual assault has been a pandemic spreading like a wild fire in our nation. It is a ramped act that is plaguing our communities. Our society tends to view the perspective of the victim, however in the recent study Justifying Sexual Assault: Anonymous Perpetrators Speak Out Online gives another outlook. A team of researchers sought out to find the reasoning of why these sexual assaulters did what they did. By all means, the researchers do no attempt to defend these assaulters but merely try to understand their motives for their actions. The way they went about their research was doing a content analysis on, “stories about a controversial Reddit.com thread, which asked users to share their motivations for perpetrating sexual assault and whether