Women and Gender Sexual Study - Essay Example

Women and gender sexual study Introduction Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions, Sixth Edition by Susan and Lee is a book that portrays the different gender inequalities. It advocates for equality by showing that women are equal to men. This essay covers violence against women as it is seen to be one of the injustices amongst most women in the world today. Violence is a broad topic thus the essay covers sexual violence against women and gives the solutions after the harassment. This will thus entitle the next chapter of the book by Shaw and Lee. The main forms of violence among women are rape, assault, and any physical or emotional torture against women, which can be by sexual comments that are not acceptable by the party involved (Shaw and Lee, 14). The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared sexual violence as one of the world disasters, since one in every three women is sexually abused daily. This has led to WHO to formulate methods to fight against sexual violence since the world is fighting for equality amongst the different genders. Sexual violence against women is the major challenge that should be advocated to ensure the world is equitable and honors human rights. Causes of sexual violence The main cause of sexual violence is gender inequality. Over the years, the female gender has been treated as a minor gender. Major human rights have been deprived from them since most cultures and society do not value women for who they are and see them as objects to ensure that the male gender is comfortable in its ventures. Most cultures in Africa and Asia have no place for women thus women were expected to be submissive to their husbands and their main responsibility was to reproduce (Shaw and Lee, 25). In these cultures, women had no power to choose even their spouses and this led to sexual violence that has been dominant since most people are opposed to change. The continuous sexual violence in the cultures has also led to women accepting their place in these societies. This makes them not to think that they have rights to object male advances to quench their sexual needs even if the females are physically or emotionally affected by the males’ actions. The past is part of the current species of men and women. The two continents are the most affected areas in the current world that sexual violence in women is still high (Shaw and Lee, 36). Other continents also report cases of female sexual harassment. In the U.S., social settings and classes are the major causes of sexual violence. Women who are low-income earners are more likely to be sexually abused than the middle-income and high-income earners. This is due to the economic constraints the low-income earners are objected to and thus they have to engage in risky jobs like prostitution that makes them more prone to sexual violence (Shaw and Lee, 41). These women rarely report their violators thus making it hard for the government to intervene and protect them. Prostitution in most areas is illegal thus; the women have to secretly carry-on with their businesses at the increasing rate of falling victim to rape or STIs. Women in the low-income category face high sexual violence due to the men trying to use their financial status to and ease them in acquiring jobs as a way to deceive the women to quench their sexual desires in exchange of better paying jobs. The women fall into the deception and men take advantage of these weaknesses, thus sexually abuse these women (Shaw and Lee, 98). WHO reported that the social setting in America is also a cause of promoting sexual violence. The African-American women are at a higher risk of being sexually abused than the Hispanics whereas the whites are the least likely women to face sexual violence in their lifetime. The social setting is based on race and the economic status of the society thus people living in Baltimore where insecurity is high due to the economic instability and race domination, the likelihood of sexual violence is high as kidnaps are rampant (Shaw and Lee, 76). The entertainment industry in the current world plays a huge role in promoting female sexuality image. Stereotyping in the entertainment industry portrays different ways women use to acquire favors from men. The industry shows that most women use their feminine to ensure that men fall into temptations to offer their services to the women. This stereotyping creates a negative image towards women. Men tend to assume that all it is in the nature of women to be used and the only way a woman can repay a man is by being his sex object. Impacts of sexual violence Sexual violence affects women’s health, confidence, death and female suicides. Sexual violence results into transmission of STIs and HIV viruses. Most violators or rapists tend to rape their victims without any protection thus increasing the chances of virus transmission to their victims. These actions also cause physical injuries where the victim may suffer internal bleeding, fractures, and other external injuries. These injuries if not treated in time may result to stroke and eventual death of the victim. The victims suffer the risk of unwanted pregnancies that increases the rate of abortion since the victim is unwilling to keep the baby due to emotional torture or due to financial constraints. Unqualified personnel perform the increased rates of abortion which results to an eventual increment in reproductive organs damage (Shaw and Lee, 107). The victims of sexual violence also incur an increase in health care cost, as they have to seek medication frequently. The victims also suffer from emotional torture, which tends to cause more harm than the physical injuries that are suffered during sexual violence. The victim is usually in a state of self-denial, disbelief and low self-esteem. These issues while not addressed eventually lead to stress and depression that cause other illnesses. The victim suffering from depression may suffer from brain damage. Low self-esteem incurred by the sexual violence victims is a major contributor that the victim is likely to be sexually violated again. This is according to the WHO research that victims who are unable to overcome the trauma of sexual harassment and suffer from low self-esteem after falling victim are more likely to be sexually abused again than victims who are able to overcome the trauma and self-denial (Shaw and Lee, 131). Past researches prove that most of the suicides by women are caused by sexual harassments. The women who fail to recover from sexual violence are more vulnerable to commit suicide. Sixty percent of women suicides involve women who are victims of sexual violence either by their partners, gang rapes, ex-partners or by relatives. These statistics proves that women are more likely to be victims of sexual violation of trusted males. The sense of betrayal by their closest male counterparts makes it hard for the victims to overcome the trauma making them to commit suicide. Most of the gang rapists end up killing the female victim due to the fear that the woman may turn them in to the security forces. These rapists cause physical injuries that the victim is unable to recover from thus increasing the rate of deaths of rape victims (Shaw and Lee, 146). Conclusion and recommendation Women are obliged to play a big role to ensure that they are not victims of rape. Women should not fall into deceptions that make them vulnerable to the violators. They should use other ways to show their gratitude to men other than using their sexuality that may create different messages to the men. This will ensure that men will not be tempted to violate them sexually. The entertainment industry should also stop stereotyping women as sex objects since their story lines and themes over the years have violated the female gender by portraying them as sex animals that men control. The government should make gender equality their priority by forming laws that will protect women from falling victims of sexual violation. The laws that are in place are not harsh enough to limit sexual harassments thus strict and harsh rules are necessary. WHO should form organizations that will educate women on was to reduce sexual violation and the best strategies to recover after falling victim of the vice. These organizations should offer free services to the victims as the high health costs contribute to the increment of suicides, deaths, and STIs. Work Cited Shaw, Susan M, and Janet Lee. Womens Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. ,2015. Print. Read More