Definition of Gender-Based Violence and Violence Against Women
The aim of the essay is to understand gender-based violence as a complex mechanism which plays out in different contexts. Thus, in order to ascertain the same, the paper looks into the definition of gender-based violence as well as violence against women. Along with this in trying to understand the root cause of the issue it also discusses how the ideation of gender and sex has influenced the context. Finally, it discusses the different kinds of drivers is associated with the occurrence of gender-based violence.
Gender Based Violence as well as Violence Against Women are often used interchangeably, this comes from the idea that most women have been the victim of violence by men for gender-based reasons. However, in my understanding gender-based violence is rather more inclusive where the victim can be anyone who is a disadvantaged position, due to their sex or their gender conformity or the lack of it. This is also because gender encompasses a spectrum where the binary of man and woman does not exist, it includes men, or men who identify themselves as women, and vice-versa. Along with this it is applies for those communities who are neither male or female (John et.al, 2020).
The main purpose of this kind of violence is to maintain the power equation in the society which is carried out with the intention to make an individual or a group of people feel inferior. Gender-based violence through history has been a tool which has subordinated women and gender non-conforming individuals (Casey et.al 2018). Now that it is established that gender-based violence stems from power, with regards to another form of violence which too should come under gender-based violence is child sexual abuse. In the ambit of child sexual abuse fall both men and women as well as non-binary or trans children, this clearly outlines how gender-based violence is the need where some individual feels should be asserted through various means in order to ensure that their dominance is reflected. The very idea of sexual fantasy which prompts people to engage in such an act is to relish the power to exert control over the weak, where dominance over an inferior is seen as a virtue and this notion is especially perpetuated through Social Conditioning Of Masculinity and patriarchy (Mowat et.al, 2016).
In fact, in certain cases of patriarchy and toxic masculinity which is perpetuates gender-based, some men can also be a victim of gender-based violence. However, their numbers when compared to other is much lower, yet it is important that it should not be neglected. It can also be extended to those people who are gender non-conforming. In the ambit of gender-based violence it is very important to take such voices into account because their access to resources as well as care can be limited considering their marginalized positionality in the society (Kim, 2020). Evidently this marginalized position in the society is caused by their sexual orientation or their gender identity. This is particularly a great interest for me because the study of gender-based violence also leaves room to understand the different kind of gender performing people that can exist who do not subscribe to the idea of normative male dominance and heterosexual dominance which is the root cause which causes the violence. It is also very interesting to note that the man-woman binary of gender which is constructed by the western society might not be same in the other parts of the countries (Kavanagh & Brown, 2020). This is where it is very essential that western institutes investigating into the aspect of gender-based violence and violence against women know the cultural nuances around gender identification around the globe in order to address this issue (Perez-Martinez, et.al, 2021)
Root Causes of Gender-Based Violence and Violence Against Women
Moreover, it is very important to note that in all the cases as discussed above gender is the root cause which instigates these instances of violence. The root cause of the violence is found in the social and the cultural structures in traditional values and norms which are created as a means to govern the society Through various kinds of sexual as well as physical and verbal and psychological or socio-economic means the violence is perpetuated to maintain the power and to express dominance of one set of individuals rather ideas on the other (Barbero et.al, 2021).
On the other hand, the instances of violence against women are very specific in nature and they are meted out against women particularly. It applies to those individuals who identify or present themselves as women. This includes different forms of violence which includes intimate partner violence as well as domestic abuse and sexual violence. Sexual violence on women and those who identifies themselves as women involves all kinds of instances where the person’s sexuality is attacked through coercion and lack of consent (Marston, 2020). For me the MeToo movement has been very important because in my generation the MeToo movement is something that triggered a stir in the society. This is because of the number of victims who organized themselves from across the globe to come out and talk about their victimization in different spheres. The MeToo movement can be seen both as a form of gender-based and violence against women issue particularly because it used gender as the baseline to attack individuals and group. Moreover, I believe it has been able to stir this commotion because it unmasks the amount of power and resources the perpetrators amassed which gave them the legitimacy to sexually violate women (Minckas & Manneli, 2021).
Some forms of violence against women are also sanctioned by the state during wars and coups. There are many examples which shows men in uniform sexually violating women to weaken a particular society, it also acts as a threat (Nordas & Cohen, 2021). While these forms of violence throw light on the degeneration of a society. The survivor of these violence also faces a lot of health complications which hampers their wellbeing to a great extent. Having said that gender-based violence and violence against women should be addressed in order to address the larger inequality in the society which causes these instances in the first place (Akhmedshina, 2020).
To begin with it is very important to establish what sex and gender. Historically they have been used interchangeably which to a great extent has shaped the research that has happened with regards to this area of study. However, it is particularly important to look and understand the nuanced difference between the two because the understanding of these concepts play a very important role in how the society shapes itself and how it has assigned roles and distributed power in the society (Chen et.al, 2020).
Sex refers to the anatomy of the human body, it also helps in differentiating between females and males which is determined when they are conceived and when they develop in the womb. This distinction is made based on the chromosomes that the foetus has. The male child has one x chromosome and one y chromosome. Whereas on the other hand, a female child has xx chromosomes. Moreover, it is also very important to note that the distinction is understood through the appearance of the genitals at birth. Thus, the genitalia are understood to be the primary sex characteristics of a child. From here, it can be clearly understood that sex is just the biological means through which a human body is defined as male or a female (Gill, 2018).
Drivers Associated with the Occurrence of Gender-Based Violence
However, the most important area of discussion is gender which is rather a social concept. It is the very social and cultural differences through which the society assigns roles to people based on what their biological sex is. Thus, with this, the concept of gender roles is associated which defines the expectations that the society has from men and women. Here different kind of cultural influences as well as agents of socialization plays a very important role in how these roles and expectations are shaped (Dartnall & Jewkes, 2013). This also proves the fact that how men and women behave, rather how they are expected to behave is not etched in their biology it is societal production. With this it is also very essential to note that the roles that they are expected to fulfil are called femininity and masculinity. The former is the cultural expectations which dictates how a woman should behave and the latter is the same which dictates how boys or men should conduct themselves in the society (Warrier, 2021).
The cultural ways in how the different roles are created over the years have ended up stereotyping their behaviours which in return has solidified the way the society expects them to behave and act. It has normalised certain characteristics like to be masculine men have to be violent and femininity is to show nurturing, care and they expected to be docile. Thus, in the problem arises when people stop performing these gender roles. Other than that, the differentiation between masculinity and femininity has historically put the former in a pedestal and has rendered them to certain privileges. These privileges and the lack of the same are maintained in the society through legal and social means. On the other hand, the performativity of these cultural roles has also established patriarchy and sexism in the society which are the important factors behind gender-based violence.
Patriarchy is associated with power which defines the social relations and roles of men and women in order to ensure that a certain status-quo is maintained. And this is maintained through class, gender performativity, race as well as heterosexual privilege. This is associated directly with gender-based violence because the maintaining of this status-quo occurs through oppressive behaviour, as well as violence and through laws which perpetuate inequality between people in the society (Cossins, 2000). It is the core ideology, rather the structural force that develops and influences power relations through different means. This patriarchal belief puts male dominance and heterosexual dominance at a pedestal and the other hand devalues women or anyone who does not prescribe to the given idea of masculinity which is the root cause behind gender-based violence (Turchik & Edwards, 2012).
With this it is also very important to note the fact that cultural factors which is associated with the construction of gender is also a reason as to why gender-based violence occurs. This includes the gender biases as well as the prejudices that define the normative structure of femininity and masculinity. The most important issue is the fact that the concepts of sex and gender also exists in the legal as well as the economic and political means which causes gender-based violence even more evident. Because masculinity with patriarchy has been amassing power as well as resources, they have been able to be the dominant force in the above-mentioned areas as well. In the legal territory, through certain laws many victims of gender-based violence have been made to feel guilty. This is because instances of gender-based violence is normalized as a response, which will be caused when one deviates from their normative gender behaviour. This is all the more perpetuated by culture, which justifies gender-based violence and inequality by evoking certain traditional beliefs as to men and women should be treated differently (Rusell, et.al, 2018).
How Gender and Sex Have Influenced the Context
On the other hand, with regards to the economic factors gender construction too play a very important role. Historically, men have been given the task of venturing out and gather resources whereas women were expected to remain in the private sphere. This is reinforced with the lack of social support and policies that exist to help women and the LGBTQI+ community who are the receiving end of the improper resource distribution and inaccessibility that has made gender-based violence very easy. On the other hand, it is also very interesting to note that when unemployment and poverty affect men the associations of patriarchy are so strong that this too causes them to assert their masculinity by adopting violent means (Kaladelfos & Featherstone, 2014).
Gender construction has also permeated in the political sphere where the lack of representation of women as well as the LGBTQI+ community has hindered the growth of conversations which can bring in policy changes to address the issue from the roots. This is one effective way through which measures can be adopted as to how gender-based violence can be addressed (Dartnall & Jewkes, 2013).
From here, it can be understood that gender-based violence is beyond just personal attributes where individual definition play a very important role in defining the nature of violence. While it can be said that the personal attributes are very important but it is motivated but the larger social structures which makes it possible or instances of gender-based violence to occur. The very fact that women are considered weak and they should abide by their gender roles is manifested through different kinds of value system. But it is a very complex aspect which includes different societal factors as well as context. Hence it should be seen as a mechanism which occurs at various contexts is often planned in order to maintain the power imbalance in the society. However even if the nature of violence differs the one aspect which remains the same is the idea of power which perpetuates violence in any given context. Like there are very different kinds of violence the context of gender-based violence also differs. It can be domestic violence in the private space, on the other hand it can be a form of sexual violence in the workplace or while accessing medical help. With this it is also very important to mention that for some individuals gender-based violence also occurs in multiple areas both in the public as well as the private realm (Chen et.al, 2020).
Having said that it is also very important to note that the history of violence against women especially in the west is governed by how the idea of masculinity is created as well. According to the west the very idea of masculinity is associated with the outer appearance this is because they had to fit to the traditional idea of gender identity. Thus, the accepted form of masculinity was men who were potent, virile as well as, well build and in nature violent which was seen as a virtue. Since this image was put on pedestal, it gave such men the advantage of exerting their power over women through violent means (Akhmedshina, 2020).
Cultural Nuances around Gender Identification Around the Globe
Moreover, often a times they sexually violated women to prove their masculinity who could get anything they wanted. Along with this as civilization grew, through warfare, invasions through colonization this masculine figure was further encouraged in order to create the very idea of patriarchy. Which has been further developed as nation-state as well as liberal democracies emerged (Mack & McCann, 2018).
The image of violent and strong masculine figure with the kind of resources he could gather due to patriarchy which was further supported by religious scriptures who put women in an inferior position introduced ideas whereby a woman was legally under the control of a man and this can be seen as the root cause behind how gender-based violence has been shaped. This is also the main idea which is applied when gender-based violence occurs in a war or in an armed conflict. The sexual violence that women face in armed conflicts is the very act which the invading country adopts in order to convey the failure of the particular society in protecting their women hereby attacking and mocking a certain idea of masculinity referring to them to be impotent and weak (Casy et.al, 2018).
With this it is also very important to note that the study around this has evolved a lot and intersectionality is a major discussion in the ambit of gender-based violence. Through the understanding of intersection which cuts across class and race, women of colour and non-binary individuals of colour are at the receiving end. This is because intersectionality takes into consideration the downside of both class and race and how it can affect the individuals and groups mentioned above. With regards to this it is also very important to understand how social identities as well as systems come together in perpetuating gender-based violence. However more than focusing on the perpetrators it is essential to look at the individuals at the receiving end who face this double marginalization. For instance, a black woman facing gender-based violence from a black man falls under sexism, whereas a black woman facing gender-based violence from a white man is navigating through racism as well as sexism (Warrier, 2021).
Thus, this is a very vital framework of investigation how social structures play an important role in perpetuating violence in certain cases. On the other hand, LGBTQI+ community of colour who are even marginalized also navigate through spaces which cuts across their social positionality. Having said that it is also essential to note that intersectionality is also a means of meting out gender-based violence is often as specific form of discrimination being made on certain communities of the marginalized social groups as measure to dehumanize them. The intersectional nature of gender-based violence is the most important evidence that indicates the complex nature of this mechanism (Gill, 2018).
Therefore, to conclude, it is very important to note that gender-based violence is one form which tries to maintain the gender roles in the society as well as it is a process through which one group of people who are historically advantaged exert their control over the other. Thus, it is an expression of power which cuts across class as well as race and even contexts. The varying nature of gender-based violence in both the private as well as the public sphere. As well as the different kind of violence it entails which includes domestic violence, intimate partner violence as well as gender-based violence in armed conflict and sexual violence indicates it is beyond personal attributes as well as it is beyond the binary of being a man or a woman. Hence, as of today gender-based violence includes everyone who is from the historically marginalized groups.
Forms of Violence Against Women
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