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 wrikar rated 10 months ago- The author's suggestion that reporting XX number of men raped women instead of just XX number of women were raped is a simple but powerful idea. By making the male perpetrators of the crime the subject of the sentence they are centrally placed as the subject of our thinking also. Feminist news ...
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9 Reviews
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- mkharvey rated 9 months ago
- a thought provoking point of view
- marielaem rated 10 months ago
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Does 'gender neutral' language serve to cover up male violence?"
....."Gender neutral language serves a dual purpose, in that it diminishes male accountability and responsibility, while simultaneously protecting men from having to face reality. Violence against women is a gendered issue, and it is predominantly men who commit acts of violence against women. This does not mean, of course, that all men commit acts of violence against women: they do not. However, violence against women is a gendered social issue, and as such, we need to keep on asking why so many men believe it their right to inflict physical and sexual violence upon women.
Pro-feminist men have begun to ask difficult questions, such as how men are socialised into narrow definitions of `masculinity' which presume any behaviour termed `feminine' is automatically inferior to `masculine' behaviour. Another difficult questions being raised by pro-feminist men is why are women as a group presumed to be automatically inferior to men and why the definition human is a male-centered one.
I strongly recommend that, the next time you read or hear media reports or those rare occasions when politicians talk about (male) violence against women, you listen very carefully to the language used. Does the report mention the gender of the perpetrator, and if not, why not? Does the report focus primarily on the female victim rather than the male criminal, and if so, why? Listen to or read carefully any media reports wherein the culprit is female. Does the report within the first sentence mention her gender, and if so, why? If the perpetrators were both female and male does the media primarily focus on the female accused? Just one recent example: when reporting the on-going case of Meredith Kercher, a young woman who was brutally murdered whilst living in Italy, the media hardly alluded to the two male suspects involved in this case. Instead, the sole focus was on the female suspect, rendering the two men gratefully invisible. One has to ask, why?
Phrases such as "stop violence against women" must be changed to "stop male violence against women". Likewise it is not "xxx numbers of women were raped" but rather "men raped xxx numbers of women" Instead of saying "xxx numbers of women were subjected to domestic violence" we must change these passive sentences to "in 2006 male husbands, ex-husbands, boyfriends and ex-boyfriends committed acts of physical and sexual violence against xxxx numbers of female partners". Given the fact that the culprits are responsible for their crimes, not the victims, they must be the grammatical subject of such sentences. Focusing on the female victims reinforces victim-blaming attitudes and deflects accountability away from the male perpetrators."
The authoress has an extremely valid point, but I cannot believe that anyone who reads about a rape case involving a female (or even male) victim would think that the violence had been perpetrated by a woman.
The act of rape would appear to be a male preserve. I don't think that the use of gender neutral language serves to disguise that.
Seen chez jenjen.
- vinitlee rated 10 months ago
- oh please.
 cattieloves rated 10 months ago- I'm not buying it. "Nowhere is the gender of the perpetrator or perpetrators mentioned: I can only assume from these phrases and sentences that violence against women is a women's issue, because men are never mentioned. Obviously, it must be women and girls committing sexual and physical violence against other women and girls." Okay, no one thinks that! I think they're stretching it here.
But, all that aside, I do like that they are trying to bring to light and prevent some of the horrific acts of abuse and rape committed against women.
- alisdee rated 10 months ago
- Interesting take on so-called 'gender neutral' language being used to obfuscate male responsibility for violent crimes. I'm not sure that I agree 100% with everything that's being said here, but interesting nonetheless.
- wrikar rated 10 months ago
- The author's suggestion that reporting XX number of men raped women instead of just XX number of women were raped is a simple but powerful idea. By making the male perpetrators of the crime the subject of the sentence they are centrally placed as the subject of our thinking also. Feminist news editing- now there's a thought!
- aghsally rated 10 months ago
- Violence against women is not a womans issue, its a general social issue. Its a man's problem as much as it is ours.
- droe82 rated 10 months ago
- tl;dr, but I'm frankly more concerned about the media's apparent intent to grab the public's attention with trivial bullshit for no good reason. They mention, for example, that a female teacher is suspected of sexual assault on a student not because the term teacher recently became gender-neutral but because said situation makes people horny, apparently. Mary Kay Letourneau's hot, Deborah LaFave's hot, but it doesn't matter how attractive a male teacher who rapes his student(s) is--he's just a sick fuck and they definitely play that angle whenever they can be bothered to mention that situation.I'm not saying I'm more resentful of female teachers raping their students or anything; don't get me wrong. Again, I'm just kind of pissed that the media intentionally presents the situations differently. "What the market will bear"?
- jenjen1352 rated 10 months ago
- From the page: "Phrases such as "stop violence against women" must be changed to "stop male violence against women". Likewise it is not "xxx numbers of women were raped" but rather "men raped xxx numbers of women". Instead of saying "xxx numbers of women were subjected to domestic violence" we must change these passive sentences to "in 2006 male husbands, ex-husbands, boyfriends and ex-boyfriends committed acts of physical and sexual violence against xxxx numbers of female partners". Given the fact that the culprits are responsible for their crimes, not the victims, they must be the grammatical subject of such sentences. Focusing on the female victims reinforces victim-blaming attitudes and deflects accountability away from the male perpetrators."
Damn if she isn't spot on. How did this slip under my radar?
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