Social And Structural Violence As A Colonial Legacy

When it came to differing views between western beliefs and the native point of view, one of the bigger problems was the conflict about contraception and stopping the spread of HIV and AIDS. Southern Africa, were the Dobe Ju’/hoansi subside, has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the world. “[T] he world U/N. figures for June 2000 show a seropositive rate among adults of 19.54 percent in Namibia, 19.94 percent in South Africa, and a staggering 35.8 percent in Botswana (Lee 2003: 190).” Because of the epidemic the life expectancy in the area has also drastically dropped. Western medical professionals have made clear to most communities that condoms are the most effective protection from HIV/AIDs. Because of this many western clinics and organizations in Africa distribute condoms to the local people. Regardless of the

Even though they had held this power, it was also shared with men, children and elders. Women were placed at a higher value than men which was evidently exhibited in how Aboriginal communities operated (Pedersen et al., 2013). The communities were organized by matriarchal, matrilineal and matrilocal structure which positioned women at the seat of power within the family and the community (Pedersen et al., 2013). Through colonization and the introduction of patriarchy, Aboriginal women were stripped of their power in their family and societal structure (Cannon, 2006). Violence against women in the family that was previously not present within Aboriginal families became an accepted and a well-known association for Aboriginal families (Pedersen et al., 2013). It was through the conquering their land, Europeans consistent oppressive regime has now become so deeply entrenched that it has been normalized and justified (Monture, 1999). Although the physical extraction of Aboriginal sovereignty and land took place many years ago, colonialism is still an ongoing process that is done in many forms (Monture, 2006). This is to the extent of political structures that keeps women in abusive relationships (Cannon, 2006). However, these policies paint violence in Aboriginal families as their own individual failures rather a systemic

Chapter 1, Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide, discusses the history of and gives us an introduction to genocide. The author talks about the treatment of bodies, in particular Native bodies, and how colonial thought and theory regards Native people as inherently “rapable” and “violable,” a colonial conviction that stretches past the physical bodies of Natives, to Native independence and lands as well. She explains that patriarchy is the foundation by which power is established over Native women's bodies because hierarchal, patriarchal authority and control systems of society are seldom found within native societies. Europeans, on the other hand, have long depended on these methods to suppress and infuse fear into their people.

This subjugation of women to men leads to statistics such as women are infected with HIV earlier than men. Kiruthu et al provide evidence, as do Petros et al, for why it seems that way. That women are consistently favoured below men, that they are subsequently unable to secure for themselves a career as illustrious as that of a man, and that the responsibilities of the household have fallen to them make poverty real. Petros et al show that women acknowledge the interplay between poverty and HIV/AIDS, with particular regard to sex work. If men were to be infected, say the authors, they need only blame the women for their promiscuity. As mentioned in Kiruthu et al, this extremely unequal relationship perhaps didn't exist – and certainly didn’t in the Kikuyu tribes of Kenya – before the colonial

The process of colonization in the Americas was a complex and complicated series of events, each driven by the varied interests of an array of European empires. For some, the Americas were a world of untold riches, while for others, this discovery allowed for missionary efforts to convert Native Americans to their faith. Regardless of the reason, violence against the many Native Americans who inhabited this “new land” was a common colonization tool to achieve these means. Direct violence is the most well-known approach, one that Spain wielded so effectively that the Black Legend was created to attest to their cruelty. Yet, the violence used was not all direct in nature. Cultural violence, which England employed itself, was used just as often. Overall, though the Black Legend has led to Spain being viewed as the most violent colonizer in the Americas, England’s use of indirect violence through engagement in the fur trade and missionary efforts was just as destructive to Native Americans.

Looking through the theme of Development Issues of women and health on women’s health, specifically empowerment of women and improving maternal health, I focus on the mothers2mothers organization. These constraints are being limited for the sake of this paper to the stigma of HIV positive mothers and the discriminatory medical services that are then placed on HIV positive mothers in South Africa. This raises the problem of mothers identifying as HIV positive in South Africa as they are then being stigmatized, therefore I will be asking, how does the organization takes steps in order to help protect the women from stigmitation as they are in the prevent[ion] mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) program? Analyzing the constraints of participation of HIV positive mothers leads to the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS infection, the lack of women’s empowerment, and the deficiency of appropriate and culturally sensitive clinical support services, even in facilities providing PMTCT services, means that many women go through their ordeal alone, confused and afraid.

With Fertility being very important in culture it is not uncommon to see women reaching out for relationships in order to sustain fertility further down the road if problems occur. Multiple relationships have the ability to spread Aids. In combination with the issue of condoms, Africans have culturally turned away from protection because it goes against the values of fertility in society. When a woman seeking a relationship tries to bring in the use of condoms she is seen as unfit for a marriage because of lack

Chapter 4 informed me about Institutional Violence, what it means, and the types of institutional violence and how this form of violence affects society. Institutional violence has many aspects such as intimate partner violence, child abuse, educational, religious, corporate, media and environmental violence. I found the section on family violence interesting and I also learned a lot of new facts and disturbing details about dangerous consumer products that either cause major and widespread illness or even death. I was able to learn more in depth about the characteristics of corporate violence and who the founding father of corporate crime is, Edwin Sutherland, thanks to this man corporate violence was brought to the forefront and acknowledged in the corporate world.

Structural violence is a big factor in American History. I would even go as far as saying the country that I live in was built on, and is ran by structural violence. In terms of race, politics, our justice system, and even our schools are all structured one way or another by some type of systematic violence. I do not believe that violence neccesarily has to be physical harm. It can be psycological, emotional, and even systematic harm. By systematic harm, I mean specifically in our justice and economic systems. The phrase "The poor just get poorer while the rich get richer" is a great example of systematic violence in my opinion. As a nation we tend to turn our shoulder to the visual and physical evidence that the police are targeting African

If women were treated with respect and viewed as equal to men, then the discovery towards a microbicide would already be well on its way, and incidents of sexual violence would decrease tremendously. Since HIV is passed through sexual fluids, fewer cases of sexual abuse would lead to a decrease in the spread of the virus to women and their children. When Stephen Lewis had a conversation with two women outside of a clinic in Rwanda, they said “‘...We’ll do anything to save our babies, but what about us?’” Access to medical treatment for those in third world countries should not be seen as an impossibility. With modern medicine, so many new pills, injections, and patches are available to slow down the progression of HIV in the body, minimize symptoms, and prevent fetal infection.

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”.

Teachers who suffer from settler teacher syndrome, act within a system of schooling meant to solidify an epistemological and ideological foundation for settler colonialism, and do so with little critical consciousness. Having been indoctrinated into settler colonialism, and by seeing the system of schooling as neutral and normal, teachers are employed as cultural gatekeepers and function to maintain systems that are harmful to students of color. One could also use Hill Collin’s matrix of domination, a black feminist construct, to explain the phenomenon. Hill Collins described the matrix of domination as structural, disciplinary, hegemonic and interpersonal in nature - “the structural organizes oppression, the disciplinary manages oppression, the hegemonic justifies oppression and the interpersonal influences oppression” (blinded for review). In both the settler colonial framework and the matrix of domination framework, teachers are both actors and acted upon. Their places within a system of domination is dependent upon them not being furnished with the opportunity to critically interrogate the system they are so intricately linked to. I argue that suffering from settler teacher syndrome is not wholly a conscious condition, but rather an (un)intended consequence of functioning within settler colonialism. I’d also like to think that they suffer from lack of knowledge, and can therefore be (re)trained and (re)taught, to think and function differently within settler

“A great achievement of women’s movements worldwide has been their success in ‘breaking the silence’ about male violence against women in intimate relationships” (Vickers, 2002). Having broken the silence of violence it has also broken the silence of oppression. The ongoing battle(s) of women’s rights suggests that the silence of oppression is of the past and the future holds equality for all alike. “…power is the capacity to terrorize, to use self and strength to inculcate fear, fear in a whole class of persons” (Dworkin, 1981). Male dominance exhibits and practices fear toward those of different classes, its use is to gain power to which control is given. “In the male system, sex is the penis, the penis is sexual power, its use in fucking is manhood” (Dworkin, 1981). The male mind indicates that without a penis an authority of power is dismissed and overlooked. Unfortunate for society today male hierarchy continues to be the dominant practice and the penis is a visual and vital form of power. “Male sexual power is the substance of culture” (Dworkin, 1981). Although women have come a long way their oppression and limited amount of power in society has yet to be broken and adjusted because of this visual of the male penis extracting power in society.

Of the six themes in the ethnography of prostitution presented by Sterk in the article, I believe that the impact of the AIDS epidemic on the women’s lives are most important. Society does not accept prostitutes and believe that they are open to the fact of having unprotected sex with numerous partners. This is not the case at all. These women are very careful and force their partners to use protection at all times. These women are sometimes forced into having unprotected sex by their partner. The costumers think that because they are paying for sex, they can do whatever they want. The men become violent and force certain acts upon these women. Although the prostitutes know the risks of their job, some do not take HIV tests because of the fear of it being positive. They’d rather not know.

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).