Gender Based Violence Portfolio

[genderbasedviolence]

Most Americans look at the child marriages occurring in foreign countries with disgust, but obsess over Toddlers and Tiaras without thinking about how they are perpetuating the objectification of little girls in the same way. Pageants for any age are objectifying. They are an example of how our society bases female value on physical appearance rather than intelligence or personality. Even if there is a question about world issues as part of the pageant, it only comes after the swim suit competition portion and many girls seem to be repeating a general or scripted answer they were taught during practice. There are few to none pageants for males, and there is certainly not a major pageant for multiple countries for males. Pageants place females in a line for the male gaze, and child pageants carry out this same function with little girls for the older, mostly male judges. In a similar sense, little girls are being dressed up for the entertainment and attention of older men, much like the child brides of other countries. While there is no physical interaction, it is possible to see how a leap from child pageantry to child brides can be made with this mindset. 

Not mentioned in this photo is how child beauty pageants can have a positive impact for girls by working to change the feminine identity and values (mentioned here http://www.huckmagazine.com/perspectives/reportage-2/child-beauty-pageants/). While I think this can be true, the cons seem to outweigh the pros, and there is a different type of pageant which allows for feminine beauty ideals to be challenged without the physical poking, prodding, and showing off of young girls. They are called natural pageants, and contestants are not allowed to wear makeup before a certain age. The pageants focus on inner beauty and personality, with part of the contest being community service (https://jmsreports.org/2013/05/13/do-childrens-beauty-pageants-help-or-harm-young-girls/). 

[genderbasedviolence]

Much like the Dogan creation story of northern Mali, the story of Adam and Eve influences the treatment of women today. Based on individual interpretation, the Dogan creation story sets up the belief that FGM is a holy, necessary process, because the god Amma cut down the masculine termite hill (clitoris), which prevented him from having intercourse with his creation. Later, the first set of twins from the union used their male aspect to protect their mother from incest with the jackal. Not only does the creation story set the belief the clitoris is an obstacle for intercourse, but that it is a masculine trait women should not have. 

Though the story of Adam and Eve does not address FGM, it does provide the groundwork for treating women as inferior. This is due to Eve being the first to fall for the serpent’s trick and then her causing Adam to fall for it as well and eat the fruit. Furthermore, Eve is stated as being created after and from Adam to be his companion, where one interpretation could be that women are created to serve men’s needs and desires. Such interpretations are useful to those in power, oftentimes cisgendered males, where they can use the story as an excuse to maintain authority over women. 

Religion does not have to be misogynistic or juxtaposed to feminism, but we should be careful of only accepting one interpretation of a story and of ignoring how the story may have been changed over centuries to suit those in power.  

[genderbasedviolence]

We often think of human trafficking as taking place in third world countries, and yet Atlanta is one of the biggest hubs for human trafficking in the U.S. and an important one in the world. My friend who works at Georgia Technical College recounted how there was a female student who went to the airport and never came back. She is only one of many.

Human trafficking is a large industry, turning out millions each year. To work towards ending this unfortunate truth, we must look at why human trafficking happens. Multiple international and federal organizations work to stop trafficking, but these are examples of negative peace, controlling the violence by law rather than building towards peace. Human trafficking is caused by social injustice and inequality. Many victims are from poverty-stricken backgrounds and are female children. In many third world countries, selling one child off to traffickers could feed the family for a while, or vulnerable adolescents fall for the promises of a better job because they wish to help their family. Positive peace would be to eliminate the economic inequality in the hopes of eradicating keep human trafficking.

On a cultural note, human trafficking often happens to girls more than boys. Families in certain cultures or geographic areas treasure boys more than girls because a boy allows them to keep the family name and property. A girl may be sold into trafficking to help feed the boy and family because her worth is less. Until the cultural attitudes and social injustices are changed, human trafficking will continue no matter how many international laws and organizations exist.

Because of the nature of human trafficking, I do not feel like these statistics are entirely accurate. Trafficking operates under the radar and, oftentimes in third-world countries, with the assistance from or the turning of a blind eye of the government. This makes specific numbers and percentages hard to get ahold of, and I feel the statistics are lower than they should be. 

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On the other hand, human trafficking can be paralleled to sex work. There is a huge lack of respect for sex workers, and oftentimes when they are assaulted there is much less sympathy because they “should have known”, or they were “asking for it”. Sex work is generally consensual, we must ask what the circumstances are which cause adults to go into the industry. Generally sex work is a last resort for those desperate for a source of income, especially single mothers or uneducated young adults. In this way it relates to human trafficking as a desperate measure for money to support one’s self or family. Instead of criminalizing sex work or creating a stigma around the treatment of sex workers, we must once more work for positive peace if we want to see less prostitution by creating social and economic justice for women, especially those of minority backgrounds. 

[genderbasedviolence]

“Honour” by Aryn Harris

You say you want me to succeed,

But only in what you want me to be.

You say you love me,

Until I create my own identity.

You value how you are perceived,

More than you treasure my well-being.

No longer will I be your doll,

To toy with and force into an ideal.

No longer will my worth depend on,

What you think of me.  

No longer will my life,

Be yours to mold. 

This poem discusses the standards and responsibilities parents often place on their children. Regardless of culture, parents often want their children to grow up with the same beliefs as them. This was true of me when my mother became angry when I told her I did not see African Americans as less than or needing to be segregated from us, and again when I came out as pansexual and admitted I did not see it as a sin. She threatened to remove me from the liberal school I was attending because of how I was changing. 

This desire for children to resemble the parents can be seen in Zaghawa culture as well. Parents expect the girls to undergo circumcision and prepare to be a good wife and the boys to learn to be warriors and provide for their family. Halima is lucky her parents are more liberal, but even Grandma Sumah voices her displeasure at Halima breaking tradition because of how it makes the family look and of what it means. Halima herself explains how girls who lose their virginity, with consent or by rape, before marriage are shunned by the family and village for being impure. Even in American culture, families often try to hide a teenage pregnancy or rape from friends and society for fear of how it reflects on them. 

Family honor and reputation are so closely tied to offspring that it adversely affects their upbringing and can lead to low self-esteem, low self-worth, depression, and even suicide. The expectations for females are often higher because of the Cult of Virginity and the basing of a woman’s value on her sexual purity. 

[genderbasedviolence]

Both 

The current debate going on over whether the U.S. should have gun reform or keep armed personnel in schools (i.e. teachers, police officers, veterans, etc.) relates to the discussion in our class on negative and positive peace. Regardless of whether someone vies for gun reform or armed personnel, the type of peace both given options reflect is negative peace. 

Both options aim to control and deter violence without attempting to shift the cultural attitudes or injustices which cause the violence. Gun reform or armed personnel would create an immediate, visible change enforced by the government, but do nothing to build peace. Positive peace takes generations and requires reflection on why America seems to have an “obsession” with guns as well as the patriotism in America and how/why it ties directly to owning a gun. We would also need to look at what circumstances lead to school shootings, including the social injustices school shooters have suffered. 

On a different note, we must also look at the differences in how genders are treated or perceived, as an extremely disproportionate amount of school shooters are cisgendered males. This could easily relate back to toxic masculinity, particularly in regards to males needing to be aggressive and dominant. Males expressing their feelings is much less accepted in our society, which can lead to bottling up emotions until they explode. Yet this is another aspect of school shootings negative peace will not address.

We should march for our lives and swear “not one more”, but perhaps we also need to be looking deeper to see what cultural mentality does to help create school shootings and what we can do to change that. 

[genderbasedviolence]

This quote from one of the lead writers of the show Doctor Who reminds me greatly of Halima Bashir from Tears of the Desert. After her encounter with the Sudanese police, she realizes she is part of the war in Darfur now, whether she wants to be or not, and calls herself the rebel doctor. Yet she is not a soldier in the war, nor does she try to kill. Instead she helps with her medical knowledge, even treating both sides while at the hospital in Hashma. She treats patients regardless of race and does not let her resentment for the Arabs stop her from helping. In a time of great conflict and peril, she continues to put herself in danger to help others, armed only with her knowledge and desire to treat those in need. 

The war affects her differently when the authorities come after her. Instead of killing her or locking her away, as the police most likely would have done to a male in her position, she is brutally raped and then released. In the eyes of the perpetrators this could be seen as worse than death, for Zaghawa culture tends to outcast any female considered “unclean”, even if the incident is not her fault. This added onto the emotional and physical trauma would be seen as worse than death, and at many points Halima longed for death. 

Though it is not possible since Tears of the Desert is a memoir, I would have liked to see what was going on in the minds of the Sudanese police/military and the Janjaweed as well as the Arab girls at the school. I want to understand how they could commit or be witness to such horrible acts against others beyond dehumanizing them. 

This would be particularly insightful in the case of Sairah, the Arab girl whom Halima beat up at school. Sairah mentioned how she was better than some bush girl, but I feel those thoughts and ideals were ingrained in her as a child and she has not been exposed to any other way of thinking. I was similar in my upbringing. Coming from a rural, racist, transphobic/homophobic town full of God-fearing Christians meant I was taught that I was above any “n***er”, “queer”, or “he/she”. I truly believed it, as growing up I was only exposed to white, cishetero families with similar beliefs. Until I went to a magnet high school with many exchange students from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, I held onto these beliefs. I thought black women were welfare queens and immigrants were stealing our jobs. Anyone who couldn’t afford to live off minimum wage was just whiny and lazy. Being exposed to a very liberal school was terrifying and eye-opening. I realized how wrong I was, and I worry about who I would be today had I stayed in my hometown. 

[genderbasedviolence]

Much like Grandma Sumah and the women in the circumcision ritual song, the military uses tactics to dehumanize the enemy. Otherwise killing another human would be much harder for most soldiers. Collateral damage is one example, referring to the civilians that die from the bombing or raid of a city. Friendly fire is another, referring to the (usually accidental) killing of one’s own forces. The use of words for dehumanization is even seen in use by the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed as they repeatedly refer to Halima and other victims as black dogs and slaves while raping or killing them. Hurting another human being, be it FGM, rape, or murder, is much harder when one sees the victim as human and like themselves. Euphemisms and insults cut the empathetic connection that would usually exist and allow horrible acts of violence towards others, particularly those who are different from the perpetrator in some way (i.e. gender, race, religion, etc.).

[genderbasedviolence]

Report: Anti-LGBT Homicides Nearly Double in 2017

Hate-related homicides of LGBT people were up 86 percent from 2016, and political rhetoric is partly to blame, says a new report.

Though not expressly called honor killings, nor taking place in a third-world country, anti-LGBTQ+ homicides bear horrifying similarities to honor killings. They are based in the idea that being anything other than cisgender and heterosexual is morally wrong, and in context of religion, sinful. Many perpetrators feel as though they are doing what is right in God’s eyes by attaining moral justice and ridding the world of sin. This closely connects to the case of Samia Shahid, who was killed in Pakistan by her father and ex-husband for divorcing him and marrying a man of her choice. The murder is believed to be an honor killing because of the nature and circumstances of the crime.

Similarly, there are family members who have disowned, abused, threatened, or even killed their own children for being LGBTQ+. My significant other’s parents disowned him and demanded he change his last name so they would not be associated with him. Many other young adults have mentioned how their families have done the same, or how their parents talk to relatives as though their child is still cisgender and heterosexual, so as to preserve the family name and honor. My own family claimed I was dishonoring them and our ancestors when I admitted to having a crush on an African American male, and later again when I came out as pansexual.