Today I want to talk about men.
Does that seem strange in a series that focuses on women’s rights? Perhaps, but it shouldn’t. There is a meme going around on Facebook that considers how we discuss violence against women in passive terms, speaking of how many women get raped in a year, or how many teenage girls get pregnant in a given state, rather than about how many men rape women and how many men and boys impregnate teenage girls.
So you can see how the use of the passive voice has a political effect. [It] shifts the focus off of men and boys and onto girls and women. Even the term “violence against women” is problematic. It’s a passive construction; there is no active agent in the sentence. It’s a bad thing that happens to women, but when you look at the term “violence against women,” nobody is doing it to them. It just happens to them. … Men aren’t even a part of it! — Jackson Katz
That was the beginning. As I began to research subjects for this diary, the theme kept coming up. First, I was thinking about the International Day of the Girl Child, which was October 11, and which has been an important subject for me as I have written about it twice in the past few years (here and here). This year’s theme is “emPOWER girls: before, during, and after crisis.” In her message for the day, Ms. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, pointed out that
Whether caused by armed conflict or natural disaster, humanitarian crises always hurt women and girls the most – they account for more than 75 percent of the refugees and displaced persons at risk from war, famine, persecution and natural disaster. They are also vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation, during conflicts and in refugee camps.
As we seemed to be facing disaster after disaster recently, this seemed particularly relevant, and I began to look for articles on the subject. (I thought of Donald Trump abusing the woman mayor of San Juan for asking for adequate relief after Hurricane Maria and I thought his responses reflected not just his feelings about Puerto Ricans, but also his feelings about strong women.) But in this search I found a study done by Fionnuala Ni Aolain in the Michigan Journal of Gender Law that explores the increased victimization of women during times of crisis as part of their cultural victimization even during peaceful times, and looks at the role of masculinity during crises.
Drawing on an analysis developed elsewhere,"I will argue that masculinity studies have significant insights to offer to the analysis advanced here, namely that structural biases marginalize women and sideline their needs during humanitarian crises. 8o Those biases have an organic link to the forms and institutional renderings of masculinities as they operate in situations of crisis and extremity.Understanding structural exclusions in the context of humanitarian emergencies requires not only asking the "woman" question but also mandates asking the "man" question."' This means examining where and how men are situated in relation to the creation, perpetration, and institutionalization of crises. The men under scrutiny include both local men who shape women's lives in a particular jurisdiction as well as internationally-based male elites parachuted in to support, "fix," or shore up a crisis situation. Particular forms of masculine behavior tend to be unleashed during crises, specifically pathways of hegemonic masculinity 12 that are evident in the actions of both locals and internationals.
The area of masculinity studies is new to me, but this article fit in with how my thoughts had been developing.
And then there was Harvey Weinstein and the sickening stories told by many actresses and models about his assaults over the years, perhaps the very definition of a type of masculinity that needs to dominate and humiliate women, aggressive and bullying, with threats and vindictiveness. That might explain, though not excuse, the silence over the years of colleagues who knew what was going on but felt afraid to stop it. (Our president is of the same type, but without the actual talent and success Weinstein has.) This is the kind of hypermasculinity described in Ni Aolain’s article. Rebecca Solnit’s article in about the fall of Weinstein in The Guardian begins with several other recent incidents of violence by men, and finds a cultural trend.
Underlying all these attacks is a lack of empathy, a will to dominate, and an entitlement to control, harm and even take the lives of others. Though there is a good argument that mental illness is not a sufficient explanation – and most mentally ill people are nonviolent – mass shooters and rapists seem to have a lack of empathy so extreme it constitutes a psychological disorder. At this point in history, it seems to be not just a defect from birth, but a characteristic many men are instilled with by the culture around them.
And we see our government with the same attitude, as this week saw the president weaken the ACA birth control mandate, and the House of Representatives pass a 20-week abortion ban. (This model gives a workable reason for women who fight against reproductive rights — the defense mechanism of identification with the aggressor.) If we consider racism as coming from the same hypermasculine dynamic, which makes sense, Trump’s aggressive moves to wipe out all of Obama’s achievements, including eliminating the cost-sharing supports of the ACA and refusing to recertify the Iran nuclear treaty are part of the same thing.
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Sexual Violence
We leave men and boys out of our descriptions of sexual violence, which reflects the way victims are treated as aggressors and aggressors are treated as victims. The undoing of Title IX protections for campus assault victims that this administration has begun and the treatment of victims in court are blatant examples of this. In this article, a high school in Pennsylvania is being accused of punishing girls who complain of harassment or assault, while the perpetrators have no consequences.
Our immigration policy also reflects this lack of empathy and compassion. A Salvadoran woman was refused asylum after being threatened by an international gang in her village. She was sent back home, where she was violently raped. She was still refused asylum, but recently won a long court battle and was barred from deportation under the Convention Against Torture.
In India, one of the countries with the highest number of child brides, the Supreme Court has found that a man having sex with an underage wife is committing rape. It may not stop child marriages, but it will give girls legal recourse when necessary.
"Teen detained in Texas, after crossing border, fights to have abortion
But staff at the facility where she's being held refused to take her to her appointments with a doctor to seek an abortion, or let the attorney take her, even though private groups that support abortion rights have raised money for the procedure, Garza said.
Instead, she was taken to a crisis pregnancy center."
Culture
1885 — The first women in their respective countries to become doctors graduate from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in a historic photograph:
PEN America series on freedom to write.
Palestinian writer awaits verdict.
pen.org/...
In Japan an artist tries to make vaginas stop being considered obscenity.
artistsatriskconnection.org/…
When a pink flyer promoting a feminism conference at Mexico’s biggest university was posted on social media this week, it did not take long before people noticed something was amiss.
The lineup featured two panels with 11 participants – and all of them were male. [...] The lopsided lineup provoked outrage on Twitter, reigniting debate about the representation of women in Mexican society and the role of men in feminist movements in a deeply machista country where seven women are murdered every day.
“What’s next? A conference on racism with only white people?” asked another Twitter user.
Organised by the humanities department at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Unam), the 11 October conference appears to be intended as a homage to the feminist scholar Marta Lamas, who will host the event and debate the 11 men. The university did not immediately respond to queries about the event.
Many feminists saw the format as an insult or an act of provocation.
“Feminism for dummies: we don’t have a single representative, there are many of us and we’re very diverse. Invite many women to your debates,” tweeted the feminist blogger Ana González.
The under-representation of women in Mexican society spurred a group of feminists to found Con Nosotras, an initiative that encourages public speakers to boycott all-male forums.
https://www.theguardian.com/…
Three TV shows killed off main characters' wives between seasons, following an old familiar pattern for shows built around male characters.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/...
October 15 is the UN International Day of Rural Women.
www.unwomen.org/...
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As always, this diary could not have happened without a little help from my friends, who this week include Besame, Sandra LLAP, Tara TASW, Eyesbright, elenacarlena, and officebss.
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