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Violence And Culture: A Cross-Cultural And Interdisciplinary Approach By Jack Eller

Decent Essays

Gender violence is a recurring issue we see cross culturally, especially in societies with a patriarchal background. Violence against women can be found both on the micro (i.e. close relationships) and macro level (i.e. institutions), however here we will be focusing on the macro, which is structural violence against women. In the book Violence and Culture: A Cross-Cultural and Interdisciplinary Approach by Jack Eller, the author defines structural violence as the social arrangements embedded in the political and economic aspect of one's society that puts those of a certain group (i.e. gender, class, race, etc.) in harm's way and may also benefit another. This essay will prove how there are commonalities in ideas of violence against women …show more content…

The “One Child Policy” was ended in 2016, but instead of it being abolished, it was replaced with the “Two-Child Policy”(Udayakumar, 2016). Nothing has really changed in regards to the violence that is committed among women despite that families in China are now able to have two children. Not only does this policy regulate women on how many children they should have, but it also has negative consequences if the woman ends up being pregnant with a third child. Women in China of childbearing age are to report for up to two ultrasound examinations every year (Udayakumar, 2016). Those who become pregnant with a third child are forced to have abortions, and the government would go as far as kidnapping and drugging these women in order to perform coerced abortions on them (Udayakumar, 2016). Additionally, those who do have a third child are fined up to ten times the annual average income (Udayakumar, 2016). These are all examples of structural violence towards women due to the fact that the Chinese government is implementing their control over women instead of regulating the men. The women are the ones who suffer the harsh consequences of bearing the third child. This also has a benefit toward the government due to the fact that they are receiving funds from families who bear a third …show more content…

Many know that women in these countries suffer from a significant amount of inequality, some of examples are them not being able to drive, not being able to go outside without a male companion, arranged marriages, and so forth. However, the most disturbing would be the moral prison that these women are sent to for ludacris reasonings. Human Rights Watch made a report on women and girls who are sent to these moral prisons which was four hundred in 2011 to six hundred in 2013. Some of them are sent there for inane reasons, such as premarital sex, being raped, attempted adultery, and so forth (Mahendru, 2017). Many of these women and girls have not done anything wrong, in fact some were victims of rape by family members or refused to marry a man, which lead them to these prisons due to the fact that it was the man's word over theirs. These are forms of structural violence where we can see how in this society, the men try to dominate the women, especially with their sexuality. The men also benefit from this by them being able to do what they want to women and

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