The Social and Legal Context of Female Youth Crime - Literature review Example

Section/# Gender and the Nation Gender, and its understanding, play a vital role with respect to the way in which people and place are understood. Even a cursory level of analysis reveals the fact that girls are expected to behave by a strict and socio-culturally determined to set of norms/mores that define expected behavior within narrow parameters. By the same token, boys have expectations as well; however, not nearly as stringent or as socially enforced as compared to those expectations of female gender norms. It is the understanding of this author that these mores and norms are represented throughout society and even though the women’s liberation movement has made inroads into the patriarchal and sexist society of our times, they continue to be obviously represented throughout the culture. As a function of seeking to understand these dynamics to a more full and complete degree, the following analysis will engage the reader with a more informed understanding of the way in which gender norms impact upon current culture and help to define, as well as constrain, the way in which young girls self identify and create an understanding for the world around them. These gender norms are not only of relevance to the life and experience of the individual themselves, they also have a profound impact with respect to the way in which a particular nation’s gender identity is determined. Accordingly, this analysis will seek to provide something of a balanced view of both the macro and the micro impacts of gender identity and how these dominate the definitions of place and group identity. From a historical analysis, it can be understood that the cultural norms and mores that men women were expected to adhere to within the past were generally contingent upon the ability of the woman to be fertile. Similarly, the gender roles and norms that were expected of men were, and to a large degree still are, contingent upon the degree of support, both financial and emotional, that a man could bring home to the family (McGovern, 1998). Ultimately, this represents a patriarchal understanding of the way in which women should subject themselves to a level of second-class citizenship as compared to their male counterparts (Yuval-Davis, 1989). Whereas the gender norms for men were contingent upon increasing their material possessions and/or focusing upon those aspects of life that interested them and they believed were of value, women wear instead prompted to focus upon a very narrow set of expectations; none of these were necessarily concentric upon the desires and hopes that a woman might have with regards to the way in which her future should look. Throughout the course of the years, the patriarchal society has changed very little (Chan et al., 2012). This illusion for change is one of the most impactful factors that encourage individuals within the current era to engage with the false understanding for the fact that the current/modern dynamic is somehow drastically different than it was before. Whereas it is without question that rights and privileges have increased, the mores and the norms of society have evolved, these very same mores and norms are nonetheless still predicated upon a patriarchal definition of society; thereby, very few real changes have been effected. The fundamental issue of continuing to define gender norms based upon fecund understanding or the ability of the female to produce and care for children is by far the single most constraining aspect of the way in which gender norms continue to impact the way in which individuals understand their own net worth and place within society. Many would argue that the level of change that was exhibited from the beginning of recorded history up until the mid 18th century was negligible (Yuval-Davis, 1997). However, a recent level of emphasis upon women’s rights, and the role in which gender has with respect to define the way in which individual should behave, indicate that a fundamental break with the past has in fact been engaged. Yes, upon closer inspection, the true levels of differential that exists between the gender norms that exist within the current era and the gender norms that exist in several hundred years ago are not quite as stark as they might at first appear (Haralambos, 1990). Although it is true that women now have the right and ability to integrate with the workforce, although it is true that women can choose between staying at home and seeking to benefit their lives by working and drawing a salary, although it is true that not each and every family is headed by a male, although it is true that women now have the right to vote, although it is true that a woman can now own property, and although it is true that a woman’s testimony in a court of law is every bit as useful as a man’s, the fact of the matter is that very little has changed with respect to the patriarchal norms and gender roles that continue to pervasively defined the society in which we live (Akulah, 2010). As a brief example of this, the reader would do well to note the fact that if a woman becomes pregnant, society invariably believes that this woman is somehow unfit to raise the child on her own and must necessarily require the protected and supported arm of a father figure of some sort. Whereas it is true that the stigma regarding children born out of wedlock has largely dissipated, the expectation that society has that a male and a female must necessarily be represented in order for a healthy and prosperous family life to be engaged is ultimately a representation of the way in which a pervasive gender norm continues to be reflected within modern society. Another example of this can of course be seen with respect to the way in which violence against women is a pervasive issue that continues to define the nature of violence within the developed and developing world. Whereas it is true that women have gained a great deal of liberties within the current era, violence against them is an unspoken evil that continues to harm millions of women globally each and every year. It is without question that violence against women and gender roles are at least nominally related. The fact of the matter is that society has for too long understood violence against women as something of an aberrant form of behavior that merely was exhibited as are so many other inhumane aberrant forms of behavior. For instance, society has long understood violence towards women to be primarily motivated by mental disability, childhood trauma, or any of the other “usual suspects” that prompt individuals to other types of heinous crime. However, the fact of the matter is that violence against women is something that whether we like to admit or not is ultimately conditioned into our global society as a means of the gender norms that are seared within our collective consciousness from birth until death (Women, Development and Survival in the Third World, 1991). One does not need to look very hard in order to find a situation in which gender roles encourage a level of abuse and violence towards women. For instance, the young girls are told from the very earliest of ages that it is not ladylike to raise their voice or command in a demanding tone. Although it is possible that the same advice is given to young boys, it is far less common (Chan et al., 2011). In fact, competition and demanding attitudes within boys is oftentimes encouraged; not only within the home but within a litany of sports programs and competitive engagements that these young boys are encouraged to take part in. In short, the children of our society are predisposed to an understanding of the fact that girls should be tended and shy by nature whereas boys should be boisterous and demanding; exercising a will to power over society and their own individual wants (Roessner, 2012). Of course, the same can be true with regards to sex and the means by which children are taught expected behavior with regards to sex (Payne, 2006). By and large, abstinence is most strictly promoted for girls as chastity is viewed as something of a feminine virtue. Although this is partly the case for boys, the level and extent to which this is evident is greatly reduced; as compared to the level and extent in which it is exhibited and girls. In short, what such a differential suggests is that boys will be boys and should and probably will engage in a high number of sexual activities prior to some form of monogamy. However, women should not be in charge of their own sexuality and perhaps cannot even be trusted to be in charge of it; thereby demanding that they remain chaste and abstinent (Freely, 2013). This expectation for chastity has changed over time; however, the expectation that only a boy can or should be sexually promiscuous is a holdover of such a strict and absurdly conservative gender norm that continues to be reflected within our own time (Haas et al., 2012). Returning to the power dynamic that boys and men are instilled with a nearly every aspect of world culture, one can see the way in which this exercise of power, force, and brutality is something that is appreciated within society as a whole with regards to men and boys; however, it is something that is shunned and derided with regards to girls. What this necessarily creates is a culture in which boys and men are taught from the earliest of ages that an exercise of their power and will to rule is a net positive. As such, it’s come as little surprise to the reader why such a high level of violence currently exists with regards to women within global society (Bernard & Schlaffer, 2010). Naturally, there are many cultures around the world in which a greater or lesser degree of this gender role and violence against women is linked. Yet, no matter the geography, ethnicity, race, or region that is analyzed, the definitive link is nonetheless evident and can be seen in a range of gender norms that may or may not be specific to the particular peoples in question (Payne, 2006). Taking the case of African or Middle Eastern cultures as an example, it can be broadly stated that media serves as a conservative qualifier; aimed at keeping a baseline of acceptable behavior defined within key metrics (Kraus, 1996). As with any media representation, the media of any particular region, culture, race or other variable invariably seeks to typify the life of the “average” Middle Eastern family, and by extension woman, as a means to better market and sell the products, airtime that their sponsors so eagerly sought to gain access to (Ghoussoub, 1987). Naturally, anytime such a broad-based standardization and/or typification takes place, especially on a regimented scale such as what is being described, the “individualness” and key attributes of a large number of women, as well as others, within society fell victim. Without a pressing need to represent diversity in thought, worldview, or belief system, the media was practically unconstrained to paint an unrealistic image of the Western woman as a function of whatever image best suited the needs of the advertisers and sponsors of the given airtime or print media in question. Such a practice was of course, and to a very large part remains, detrimental to the way that women perceived themselves and the plight of equality as well as their general role within society. The effects of the media standardization that have thus far been discussed, while detrimental to aspects of the African or Middle Eastern media, are not therein constrained. Rather, the recent trend of globalization has meant that the ways in which the world media spreads a type of homogenized image of the “others” within the world; whether these be immigrants, indigenous people, women, or a litany of other groups serves to simplify, and trivialize the broad understandings that the viewers, inclusive of other women, have with relation to how they view themselves and the plight of women’s liberation and growth on a global scale (Kandiyoti, 1991). Naturally, two results can take place from this type of exhibition that the media portrays. Either the individual can accept the norms/more that are being foisted upon them as indicative of the true nature of the way in which the world can be described or they can refuse to allow themselves to be influenced by these images and understand the fact that such a broad based stereotypification is indicative of a simplified and trite world view (Yuval-Davis, 1991). Unfortunately, the former is most oftentimes the case as it is far simpler to take a tacit approach to the information that is being transmitted than to actively engage with it and seek to forge an alternate means of understanding or world view from it (Ferguson, 2012). Whether or not one wants to admit it, the fact of the matter is that place, space, and gender all factor heavily with respect to the way in which both individual and collective identity is formulated and represented to the societal stakeholder. As has been discussed at some length within this analysis, the fact of the matter concerning the way that women are portrayed within the media works to congeal a type of alienation with the mainstream feminine ideal due to the fact that the images that are represented are so disparate and unrealistic from the way in which normal life takes place that those that do not accept such an ideal feel necessarily disenfranchised from the typifications that are foisted upon them (Carpenter, 2012, p. 270). As a means of the analysis that has thus far been conducted, the reader can easily note that the mores and norms that are presented in the various forms of media that exist within our current world system are not synonymous and do not integrate to a reasonable degree with ways in which female liberation has taken place within the intervening period of time that has been discussed. Instead, rather than representing a reasonable facsimile of the ways in which society has grown, evolved and realized key mores, the media itself represents a type of antiquated norm that continues to be foisted upon the consumer as a means to represent ideals that would have long since faded into a type of obscurity (Munoz & Ferguson, 2012). As a means to combat such an eventuality, it is the belief of this author that the best way to affect a net overall change on such a system is to seek to shun and avoid such stereotypical explications of gender identities that have thus far been exemplified within the media. Although this can of course be difficult, it is required in order for the ongoing struggle for women’s rights to be continued. Bibliography Aulakh, H 2010. The social and legal context of female youth crime: A study of girls in gangs. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A, 71, Bernard, C., & Schlaffer, E 2010. The Man on the Street: Why He Harrasses. 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