CRJ 3

Social construction of gender consists of adjectives intentionally placed to emphasize the notion of femininity and masculinity. These adjectives/attributes have been created social processes that reflect the various workings of power in society. These notions do change through history and different cultures. Lorber says that since gender is central in shaping our lives , much of what is gendered we do not recognize, and it is made normal and ordinary and occurs on a subconscious level. As an example the basic notions attached to femininity are passive, dependant, intuitive, emotional and masculinity are strong, independent, in control and out of touch emotionally.

First I will look at sexual violence associated with masculinity. Over time men have been associated with the machismo element, which revolves around potent sexuality and an affinity to sexual violence. We have heard about stories girlfriends and wives getting raped by their boyfriends and husbands. From the data I found on rape, over 25% of rape cases are by someone intimate. This can occur in a variety of situation. For example when in a relationship if the girlfriend refuses to cross a certain limit in the extent of sexual activities, this can cause a violent reaction from the boyfriend. There could be situation where the girl is made to submit to his wants. I also consider this sexual assault. In the case of marriage many men think that they own their wives and they have the right to have sex with them when they want. In case the wife refuses, there have been many incidents where the husband will beat the wife and she will eventually have to give in to his violent behavior. Rape by family members is also more than 25%. We all have varied sexual urges. In case of family members, they have no control over their urges and they feel they can dominate the victim. The reason they can so easily dominate the victim is because they know that for the victim to come out in the open is going to cause a lot of embarrassment and pain to the entire family. There are also cases when a man cannot persuade the girl into a relationship or a sexual encounter and anger builds up inside him. He feels that he has the right to take revenge against him being rejected and will rape that woman. These are some of the ways I feel that masculinity has been involved in sexual violence.

When I think about femininity I don’t think those attributes directly contribute to sexual violence. I think that sometimes the strength of masculinity actually forces upon or results in the attributes associated with femininity. Another statistic I would like to look at is that 60% of sexual assaults go unreported. This shows that our society does not welcome such victim and in fact looks down upon them instead of showing more concern.

In conclusion I would say that masculinity of the social constructs of gender have a direct effect on sexual violence. When a man associates the thoughts that to be real man he has to be dominating and in control (e.g of his wife) the chances of forced sexual assault increases. In few cases it can also happen that the woman chooses to be submissive as she thinks she has no way out.