Category: Gender-based violence

The Kiss that Overshadowed Spanish Women’s Soccer History

Women’s soccer is a passion of mine and while USA is my team, even I had to admit that at this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup Spain was a dominant force. Their team was among the best, if not the best, that I had watched in my time as a fan. I spent the cup in awe of their ability. This came at a time in which women’s sports are beginning to gain traction, more people than ever watched the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, the University of Nebraska’s women’s volleyball team broke the record for highest attendance at a women’s sporting event, and the World Cup itself was gaining viewership. This team was poised to make history and make history they did. In front of the eyes of the world they brought home Spain’s first ever Women’s World Cup Final victory. Unfortunately, the attention on their victory did not last.

During their celebrations, Vice President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales kissed player Jenni Hermoso without her consent. Within the week Spanish soccer shut down. No longer were discussions of the women’s team about their victory, but instead about this kiss and the perpetrator who refuses to step down.

The public outcry has been somewhat unique compared to many incidents in women’s sports. In past instances the supporters of the women that were impacted by these events are majority women as well, especially within the realm of support from other athletes, but this time was different. Players from men’s and women’s teams across Spain made statements in open opposition to Rubiales continuing to hold his office. Athletes from both sections of Spanish soccer have pledged to refuse to play for Spain so long as Rubiales remains in office.

Are there instances that have played out in a similar manner in other settings? I’m curious if there has been similar support for a woman in this sort of situation outside of sports.

Op- Ed : Culture of Silence: Why Minority Victims of Sex Abuse Don’t Report

Why Minority Victims of Sex Abuse Don’t Report

Nashara Turrentine

 

As a black woman, I grew up in a household that values and cherishes family and holds the family name to a high standard. Things that bring the family shame were never to be discussed with the public or with friends, and anything that happened amongst the family was to be resolved and never spoken on again. I place a strong emphasis on “never spoken on again,” and less emphasis on “resolved,” because many minority women, they are the ones shamed, and forced to move forward. This is especially true for women whose perpetrators are their older, male family members. Sometimes, the issue is simply brushed to the side, and their abusers are allowed to continue coming around. The reasoning behind this is not as simple as saying that families just don’t want to deal with the assaults. The importance of upholding the family name is incredibly prevalent amongst most minority families, and family shame, honor, and stigma are listed as some of the cultural reasons that there are barriers to women and children reporting their sexual abuse and abusers. The reputation of one’s family or that community is nine times out of ten placed at the forefront of the issue as opposed to bringing shame to the abuser, which seems like it would have the opposite effect in my opinion. I would much rather be slightly embarrassed that there is one single abuser in my family and be known for excommunicating them from the family than let people find out that not only did we enable the abuse, but we kept the abuser around after finding out they did anything to harm someone that I loved. I personally think your family name is soiled once people find out you are enabling something as disgusting as sexual assault or any kind of abuse. There are also many deeply ingrained stigmas and stereotypes pushed onto minority communities that hold plenty of women back from reporting their abuse. For example, black women are stereotyped as “fast,” and are apparently more likely to consent to sexual activity at a young age than others. First of all, you cannot consent to anything as a child. Secondly, I believe a lot of the black community is responsible for enabling and continuing on this idea that young black girls are “fast,” or “too grown.” Black mothers are very quick to tell their sons to “stay away from them fast little girls.” Why are you, as a black woman, helping perpetuate the idea that black women need less protection from predators and are more sexually advanced than their white peers? I can’t write this without bringing up the ever so famous “go cover-up, family is coming over.” When has it ever been okay to feel like your child needs to cover up their legs or midsection because their own male family is on the way to spend time with them? It’s not okay, but it is genuinely ingrained in the black community. If I move away from the black household and focus on the Middle Eastern or Asian household, especially the more traditional families, many women are deemed unworthy of marriage after sexual assault, as virginity is a virtue and sometimes, a requirement of marriage for these cultures.

 

Moving away from the subject household and into the issue of legal power being no help, many minorities are reluctant to report because they fear a lack of response, belief, or help. Many minority women, especially black women, already struggle with the criminal justice system as is. To report something as traumatizing as sexual assault or abuse takes a large dose of courage, and minorities historically already do not trust the legal system because truthfully, it was not built to protect or help them, and can sometimes work against them. 44% of white sexual abuse victims report their abuse while only 17% of black victims report the same abuse. Not only is there the lack of concern for black and minority victims, there’s also the issue of women of color being more likely to have their children taken away due to lack of protection if their child reports sexual abuse than white parents.

 

There is very little addressed as ways to create a solution to the problems we as minority women face when it comes to sexual abuse, and it seems to me like we have to work our way from the inside out. We need to address our internal issues and understand them. I won’t say we need to do that before the issues can be resolved on the outside but there are a lot of issues we have within our cultures that genuinely need to be addressed and fixed so that we do not perpetuate these issues any further.

 

Culture of Silence: Why Minority Victims of Sex Abuse Don’t Report

 

 

OP-Ed on Sexual Violence.

According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) sexual violence is a blanket term that covers any crimes such as sexual assault, rape, and abuse. To be more specific, the state of North Carolina defines sexual assault as “any offense in which the defendant subjects one or more victims to unwanted sexual acts” (FindLaw’s team of legal writers and editors). With more and more survivors coming out and testifying against their abusers, those individual’s statements should be taken seriously. When you throw the case out or throw it to the side, you send a message to those that were abused that they should just live with the trauma of it and not tell anyone about it. Doing this only harms the individual more and halts the healing process.

A couple of days ago, a female student at D.H. Conley High School in Greenville, NC reported being sexually assaulted by a male student, who had also allegedly assaulted six other females at the school. A friend of the female that reported the assault to school administration and the school resource officer wasn’t taken serious and was actually threatened with 3-days of school suspension if she or the other girls did not keep quiet about the situation. To further add, the unnamed male student faced no repercussions and was not even removed from the female student’s class.

When we hear about situations such as this one, it’s usually on a college campus, however something so close to home (same city as our university) is happening to girls at an even younger age. By law, children are required to attend school daily, so why does the school administration react in such a way? If the government is expecting children to spend 8 hours away from their parents daily, the staff in the school should be held accountable for incidents like this. It seems as if nowadays more and more sexual violence cases aren’t being taken as serious as they should be.

It’s disheartening to hear survivors of these horrific attacks not be taken seriously by people that were put into certain job roles to protect them. Like I stated previously, when those in charge throw these cases to the side and don’t take them seriously, victims oftentimes hold in their trauma and do not speak about it. Instead they begin to let their trauma define them and change who they are as a person. (ex: an outgoing person becoming more and more reserved).

As we stated in class, Title IX updated rules to tend to the accused, but how come it doesn’t account for those in power to take cases seriously. No matter the race of the survivor, gender of the survivor, or age of the survivor, they should be taken seriously! A suggestion I pose is to hold those that treat cases in such manner just as responsible as the abuser that committed the crime. If they had any accountability placed on them, I feel as if more and more cases would be taken seriously. Which leads me to my point of, if it doesn’t pertain to us, why should we care? is a mindset society has adopted.

To conclude, I believe sexual assault cases are not handled as seriously in society as they should be. I’ve heard of stories at universities of this happening, but never thought it would happen at the high school level. It’s really shocking too because one big argument people love to bring up to survivors is, Well, what were you wearing? but when you think about it, high schools have such strict dress codes, and situations like this are still happening!

FindLaw’s definition of Sexual Assault: https://www.findlaw.com/state/north-carolina-law/north-carolina-sexual-assault-laws.html

Article Referenced: https://www.witn.com/2021/11/05/dh-conley-student-says-she-six-other-girls-were-sexually-assaulted/

Op-Ed: Victim blaming

In society, we hear many people blaming women for their encounter with sexual assault.  While some victim blaming might be pretty obvious, other situations of victim blaming can be hard to detect.  By blaming a women or man for their encounter, people become more and more likely not to report cases of sexual assault–letting perpetrators get out legal punishment.

Victim blaming can happen after any sexual assault encounter, and can even be done to oneself.  Victim blaming consists of society asking the question of “was it really rape, or was it a regrettable sexual encounter”.  These ideas of “victim blaming” surround a misconception on sexual assault, blaming variables such as what a woman was wearing, what they were drinking, or even “what they could have done differently”.

Many women fear coming out about their encounters due to these socially constructed misconceptions.  While in most reported cases, a male is the perpetrator, both genders face fear when coming out about their experience due to the backlash they might receive from people.  Continually asking questions, asking a person to repeat their story multiple times in detail, and questioning their own experience is what turns victims away from pressing charges, and some women may even lie and say it “wasn’t rape” in order to not deal with the backlash that might be ahead.

Victim blaming needs to be properly address in order to prevent further trauma for the victim.  Women and men brave enough to go to an authoritative figure to report sexual assault are most times turned away after coming out.  Being told things such as “this is going to be hard to prove” or “many people don’t follow through with charges” is so disheartening for men and women to hear.

I hope that more people will learn about victim blaming and how to spot it and prevent it.  When a person is told something like “you were just drunk”, there needs to be multiple people there to explain that it is not their place to tell the victim it was solely THEIR fault.  A woman or mans clothing, how drunk they were, or what kind of relationship they had with the perpetrator should never be used as an excuse for what the perpetrator has violated.

 

Rebecca M. Hayes, K. L. (2013, April 29). Victim blaming others: Rape myth acceptance and the just world belief – rebecca M. hayes, Katherine Lorenz, Kristin A. Bell, 2013. SAGE Journals. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1557085113484788.

OP-ED Black Women and Indigenous Women: Intimate Partner Violence Highlighted

https://ujimacommunity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Intimate-Partner-Violence-IPV-v9.4.pdf

 

Black and Indigenous women are the most prone to getting sexually assaulted compared to white women. This was one of the facts in the article below entitled “Intimate Partner Violence in the Black Community”. Even though this article specifically talks about black women in dangerous homes with their significant others, they do speak of women of hispanic, Caribbean, and native descent. in my following blog, I will be expanding on these two races of women to see how they are among the targeted when it comes to intimate partner violence.

“According to the CDC, Black and American/Indian Alaska Native Women experienced the highest rates of homicide (4.4 and 4.3 per 100,000 population) and over half of all homicides (55%) were related to IPV”. In that excerpt from the article, it just shows that black/native women have been the survivors in a feud of the aggressor. Within our class, we talk about how black women are stereotyped to be the ones that are “smarter” than other races of women when it comes to IPV. Within this article, this proves the theory wrong, showing that as black women we need a lot more help when getting out of those environments than people may think. Rape, stalking and even more in this article shows that black women have been viewed as just objects to objectify and scorn. Within the subject of rape the statistics in the article state that nationally, 9% of black women were raped by an intimate partner during their lifetime. This fact shows that within the rape community, it is usually a person that women know that will rape them versus a stranger that they just met.

In closing, another discussion that we have had in class is about IPV with black women being arrested for self defense from their partner. That discussion has definitely stuck with me considering I know a number of black women that are jailed for life without parole for a defense act against their perpetrator. I guess the question that really sticks in my head is when will their every be justice for the black woman when defending themselves against their aggressor? What actions will be in consideration for those that may have children at home? The reason for the last question is that a lot of black women go to jail for self defense against their partner and they have a child at home to take care of. If the mother is arrested, I feel like their should be more options for those mothers that don’t have any family members to take care of their children. Instead of putting the kids in the system they may can make a IPV child system where the women that dealt with that and are imprisoned have some sort of guarantee that if they can get out of jail, they will be able to get their child out the system without all the extra baggage that comes with it.

 

OP-ED on Human Trafficking World Wide

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Imagine you’re shopping at your local grocery store, you then walk out to your car to find a sticky note on your windshield. This note was really a distraction, giving a kidnapper time to grab you and take you while you’re preoccupied with the note. Most human trafficking rings start by kidnappings or start by men and women that are prostitutes. Human Trafficking has been a prevalent problem for thousands of years.

Th Department of Justice defines Human Trafficking as “in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.” In more recent times, the traffickers will lure their victim into unwanted labor or a form of fraud to then trap them in a confined space giving them the authority to do and say whatever they want. Making them in charge.

In todays times, with COVID-19 being a huge problem around the world, this has created a huge increase in human trafficking cases. With COVID-19 comes death to men, women and children. With some parents losing their lives, this creates the problem that children are left vulnerable or even in orphanages around the world. Council on Foreign Relations stated, “In both the United States and United Kingdom, young women who cannot afford to pay their rents, or are financially vulnerable, are being subject to sextortion by their landlords.”

Finding a way to adjust to COVID-19 has been a somewhat of a normal norm recently. Online classes and online jobs being a huge shift in society. This online shift is another very successful way of traffickers to rope in their victims by incentives or chatting with these boys and girls behind their guardians backs.

The only thing we can do to stay safe and aware is to be alert to missing persons posters or amber alerts. It is also very important to known the trafficking hotline (1 (888) 373-7888) as well as understanding the signs of sexual exploitation or unwanted touch. If you or somebody you know that has been involved in something in the trafficking degree or even feeling as though your being watched or followed, don’t be afraid to call 911.

 

https://www.ncptf.org/post/31-ways-to-help-prevent-human-trafficking

https://www.cfr.org/blog/evolution-human-trafficking-during-covid-19-pandemic

https://www.justice.gov/humantrafficking

https://www.newsomelaw.com/sex-trafficking-lawyer/how-do-sex-and-human-traffickers-get-their-victims/

 

 

 

 

A woman’s risk for going to college.

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Today, there is a lot of talk about sexual harassment but on a college campus, but surprisingly there is more of a risk for college aged students that don’t attend college. This article goes into the statistics-based parts explaining that “female college-aged students (18-24) are 20% less likely than non-students of the same age to be a victim of rape or sexual assault.” That sentence threw me for a loop because all my life I’ve been taught that college is the most dangerous place for a young girl, but along with the danger of being taken advantage of, there’s the danger of being robbed. College women are twice as likely to be sexually assaulted than robbed, but non college women experience 5 robberies for every 4 sexual assaults. The saddest fact is that only 20% of women that are students report to law enforcement. Some of these assaults stem from stalking which 5.8% of students have experienced since going to college. There need to be more done for women and not just students so that we can live in a safe place and not fear that a man is going to come out of the dark and attack us in anyway. Women deserve to be safe and not afraid to go out in fear of being taken advantage of or robbed, hopefully things will change in the world, and it will become safe for us.

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/campus-sexual-violence

Sexual violence and Men: Why is it so unheard of?

In the reading “Sexual Violence Against Men and Women In War: A Masculinities Approach” by Valorie K. Vojdik, I was very fascinated with page 932 which discuses the fact that homosexuality is a crime in 70 states (at the time written, 69 as of 2021), which in turn makes men less likely to report accounts of sexual assault from another man–or even at all!

The reason that these men are shamed, feel guilt, etc. is due to the social construct of masculinity–on page 926 of the same reading referenced beforehand, Vojdik says “Masculinty is not a fixed identity, but rather a social practice of gender that constructs men as masculine and heterosexual, defined in opposition to those men who are perceived as effeminate  or homosexual, and women.”

Men are forced to repress these emotions, thoughts, and experiences in order to represent their “masculinity”.  Sexual violence against men has occurred throughout history, and while women are finally getting to the point where their voices are heard, society still represses men to act as if this sexual assault against them is normal, not a “true crime”, while against women in it is defined as sexual violence, and is represented more in society.

 

Below is an article I read that opened up my eyes as far as statistics and life impacts on boys/men.

Men and Sexual Assault

 

Protesters want investigation into Loudoun judge who jailed domestic violence victim

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https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/protesters-want-investigation-into-loudoun-judge-who-jailed-domestic-violence-victim/article_78f12eca-1d46-11ec-85a7-ff1c998ecc04.html

A judge, during testimony in a domestic violence case, sentenced the alleged victim of the domestic violence to 10 days in jail for smoking marijuana the morning of the trial, which was held in the afternoon. Last name Orndoff, was testifying against her current boyfriend on domestic abuse charges when the judge interrupted and asked if she was intoxicated. Orndoff admitted to smoking marijuana the morning of the trial and was immediately sentenced to 10 days in jail. Locals are not happy about this, stating that the main issue here was about the domestic abuse, not if she was smoking.

judgeprotest.jpg

It’s crazy to think that a judge, during testimony about a domestic abuse case, would simply jail the victim of the abuse based on something not even related to the case. Her smoking had nothing to do with her boyfriend abusing her and yet during this trial she was punished as a victim. I hope an investigation takes place; in my opinion, that should not have interrupted a case such as this in any way.

EMILY RATAJKOWSKI AND ROBIN THICKE ASSULT STORY

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I chose this topic to talk about because it just recently hit the surface of media. In class a couple weeks ago, we watched the music video for the song Burred Lines, where Robin Thicke is talking about doing things witohut consent. We then watched a video dub of someone recreating the song but it talks all about consent, which is important.

In this article, Emily R. talks about how on the set of the music video, Robin came up behind her and put his hands on her breasts without her consent. This is a huge problem. She states in an srticle from Independent,“I didn’t react – not really, not like I should have.” Emily also goes on to say,“I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke. He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses. My head turned to the darkness beyond the set.”

The men and women on the set of the music video all testify to say that Robin may have been drunk or tipsy when the incident happend. She was hesitant about coming forward due to the humiltion. Which is most of the time the case for all women that go through something of this magnitude. These incidents happen to owmen all around the world. There should be no more silence, this is unaccpetable.

 

Source:

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/emily-ratajkowski-robin-thicke-sexual-assault-b1931719.html