Gendered Violence and Abuse - Essay Example

Internet and other communication technologies: Gendered violence and abuse and strategies to prevent the vices Introduction Gendered violence and abuse are difficult to define as in most cases, definitions consider violence committed against women and girls. However, it evident that gendered violence is not restricted to men committing violence against women, as there are cases where women also abuse men and violate their rights. With the advent of the Interned other communication technologies, it is also possible for perpetrators of gendered violence to target boys and girls as well as men and women. The aim of this paper is to describe the various ways in which the Internet and other communication technologies can facilitate gendered violence and abuse. The paper will also identify and critically discuss two approaches that can be used to prevent gendered violence and abuse emanating from the use of the Internet and other communication technologies. Various ways in which the Internet and other communication technologies can facilitate gendered violence and abuse Definition of terms As stated in the introduction, defining gendered violence is difficult because most definitions focus on the issue as violence committed by men against women and girls. For example, Basiliere (2010, p. 142) adopts the definition of the term as stated in the Bridge Report that gender violence is any act or threat by men or male-dominated societies that metes out physical, sexual, or psychological injury on a girl or woman because of their gender. Basiliere (2010, p. 142) notes that this definition is rather weak because it makes no reference to violence that women commit against men. This is due to the fact that although it is always perceived that men are in greater positions of social privilege and thus much more likely to commit violence against women, it is equally important to acknowledge the fact that the phenomenon of women perpetrating violence against men also exists. A better definition of gendered violence can be that proposed by Wies and Haldane (2011, p. 2) as violence against an individual or population based on gender expression or identity. This definition recognises the fact that gendered violence can be committed by either men or women against male or female individuals. The definition given by Wies and Haldane (2011, p. 2) is particularly important when the Internet and other communication technologies are used by perpetrators to commit gendered violence. This is because both genders can access the Internet and other forms of communication, which they can then use to commit violence against their targets. In respect to this, the Internet and other modern communication technologies comprise information and communication technologies (ICTs), which is a broad term that encompasses a wide array of technologies that meet people’s communication and information needs. How the Internet and other communication technologies can facilitate gendered violence and abuse Various authors have reviewed the issue of how information communications technologies can facilitate gendered violence. Terry and Hoare (2007, p. 155) argue that some of the ways ICT tools facilitate, encourage or disseminate gender-based violence are: Internet pornography, which includes child pornography, chat rooms that enable sex predators to exploit children, as well as video games that glorify violence, including gendered violence. Based on this view, Terry and Hoare (2007, p. 155) opine that as ICT tools spread to different parts of the world where access is currently limited, the associated manifestations of gendered violence will spread too. Along the same line, Dimond, Fiesler and Bruckman (2011, p. 1) point out that stalking and other forms of harassment have for a long time been associated with domestic violence and this can be made worse by the increasing prevalence of ICTs. For instance, in the United States, the adoption of ICTs such as mobile phones and the Internet is pervasive. In particular, more than two thirds of the households in the United States have Internet connectivity, and 89 per cent of American adults have a mobile phone. With increasing text messaging, Dimond, Fiesler and Bruckman (2011, p. 1) note argue that it is likely that survivors of domestic violence will use their phones and go online, which increases their susceptibility. Through the Internet, various groups targeted for online violence are exposed to vices that comprise cyber violence such as cyber bullying, cyber stalking and cyber harassment (Dimond, Fiesler & Bruckman 2011, p. 2). According to Dimond, Fiesler and Bruckman (2011, p. 2), cyber bullying, is concerned with the combination of offline and online harassment of teens and youth, but does not typically relate to intimate relationships and is not typically sexual in nature. On the other hand, cyberharrassment refers to incidents such as harassing messages, photo manipulation, threats, impersonation, and posting of personal information that are done online and harass a certain person or group. Last but not least, cyber stalking differs from cyber harassment differs from cyberharrassment in the sense it encompasses a considerable threat of harm. The most common form of abuse on the Internet and phones seems to be the involvement of children in the production, downloading and distributing of pornographic images as well as online soliciting and grooming, which involves seducing children over the Internet with the aim of obtaining underage sex (Jewkes, 2010, p. 5). Also, in recent times, national local media all over North America have cautioned against the risks of ‘sexting’, that is, the practice of conveying, posting, or possessing sexually evocative images and text messages over the Internet and through mobile phones (Karaian 2012, p. 57; Peters, Kowalski & Malesky 2011, p. 171; Kowalski, Limber & Agatston 2012, p. 68). Karaian (2012, p. 57) also gives details of how various magazines in North America have explored cases of how teenage girls have become used to being ‘used’ and ‘discarded’ by ‘hook-up culture’ that is promoted by information communication technologies. Other online media sources in the same region have indicated that many girls are disempowered and duped as a result of ‘sexting’ (Karaian 2012, p. 57). The same applies to adults, where men monitor women (mostly their partners or ex-partners) through phones, cyber stalking, use of computer monitoring software and so forth (Hand, Chung & Peters 2009, pp. 1-8). The above reports seem to suggest that cyber violence targets more girls than boys and this leads to the issue of gendered violence using ICT tools. This finding is also presented by Peters, Kowalski and Malesky (2011, p. 171) who report that unlike traditional bullying, which in most cases involves boys than girls, cyber bullying and related violence such as cyber stalking and cyber harassment is more prevalent with girls. Peters, Kowalski and Malesky (2011, p. 171) also cite a research study by Kowalski and Limber (2007) which indicated that 25 per cent of middle school girls were likely to report being cyber bullied compared to about half the number (11 per cent) of boys. Ringrose et al. (2012, p. 7) also report that sexting is not a gender-neutral practice; rather, it is a practice shaped by gender dynamics of peer groups in which, mostly, boys stalk girls, and it is worsened by the gendered norms of popular culture, school and family that fail to identify the problem or to assist girls. Ringrose et al. (2012, p. 7) found out that there is an old-age double standard, whereby sexually active boys are to be respected and ‘rated’ whereas sexually active girls are despised and maligned as ‘sluts’. This creates gender specific-related risks whereby girls are not able to overtly speak about sexual practices and activities while boys risk peer segregation if they do not boast about their sexual encounters. Another dimension to look at why girls and women are more susceptible to gendered violence that involves the use of ICT is given by Dimond, Fiesler and Bruckman (2011, p. 2). According to these authors, feminist theorists as well as activists have for a long time examined the reason why the female body is subject to violence. They note that the female body has been referred to as a place of oppression; that is, acts of violence against women are the outcome of a male-dominated society or patriarchy. Women have traditionally been controlled by limitations to public space, expression of sexuality, reproductive choices, careers, appearance, and leisure activities. Violence is usually perpetrated against people who do not conform to heterosexual norms or just because they are members of a particular ethnic group, or for being women. According to the Feminist Standpoint theory, production of knowledge usually emanates from dominant groups and using experiences of conventionally underrepresented groups for a more complete and precise view of the world (Dimond, Fiesler & Bruckman 2011, p. 2; Humphries 2009, p. 97). In deed, as reported by the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2005 p. 12), the use of the Internet to perpetuate violence against women is rife because men tend to have better access to ICT tools than women. It is also noted that the Internet is utilised to normalise and accelerate the sexual abuse of women and children especially because it enables commodification of women and sexualised violence, including through instantaneous broadcasting of sexual exploitation (United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2005, p. 12). How to prevent gendered violence and abuse related to ICTs Education and legislation against gendered violence are some of the strategies for preventing gendered violence. According to Terry and Hoare (2007, p. 4), public awareness-raising programmes and initiatives in schools are increasingly adopted to challenge the stereotypical perceptions of female and male sexuality and status that motivate gender-related discrimination and violence. However, most of the interventions still pay attention to responding to the impact of violence against women as opposed to tackling its root causes or focusing on other areas such as violence against men and boys. In particular, there are increasing cases of sexual violence perpetrated by both men and women as discussed by Sivakumaran (2007). A number of education programmes have however taken into consideration tackling the root cause of gendered violence and hence fighting violence against both men and women. UK’s WOMANKIND is an example of such initiatives (Terry & Hoare 2007, pp. 4-8). This organisation has a programme called ‘Challenging Violence, Changing Lives’ meant for secondary school students as well as their teachers. The organisation has developed a number of tools to raise awareness and transform the mindsets of young people to stop violence against women, including lesson plans, an interactive website called Respect4Us, and a campaign called Stop Sexual Bullying Campaign. Although WOMANKIND specifically targets violence against men, the fact that it involves both boys and girls as well their teachers means that it is all-encompassing and thus when both men and women are involved at a young age, this is likely to prevent gendered violence targeting any sex. Elsewhere in Latin America, education on prevention of gendered violence has taken another approach based on the realisation that ICT-related tools are used to perpetuate violence. According to the World Bank (2013), experts in El Salvador have decided to combat domestic violence and other forms of gendered violence using smartphones. This is based on the realisation that phones are used to conduct various acts of abuse such as sexting, stalking and phone tracking. In regard to this, various apps have been designed to combat cyber stalking as well as real life domestic violence and abuse. Experts are also using social networking sites such as Facebook to spread content that advocates against gendered violence (World Bank 2013). This approach is undoubtedly effective because both men and women (both older people and youth) use such sites, and thus when a message is posted on such as site it is likely to reverberate across both gender and across different age groups. The effectiveness of these approaches also lies in the fact that various types of media are used, meaning that a wider audience is likely to be reached. For instance, there are SMS-based alert services and web-based programmes, which have a wide reach because of the focus on web- and phone-based audiences. A good example is a Facebook application that targets at-risk teenagers (World Bank 2013). With the target of this facility being young people, it is likely that the young people will be nurtured to shun gendered violence, which is beneficial to the society as the young people grow into adults. As mentioned above, strong legislation against gendered violence is one of the measures that can be used to deter the practice. This point was emphasised as recently as 5 March 2013 by members of parliaments from across the world who congregated on the sidelines of the annual session of the UN women’s commission. In particular, the Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet, said that all nations should have legislation that penalises violence against women in all fields and all kinds of abuse or violence. She emphasised that parliaments must spot gaps and amend weak legislation (United Nations New Centre, 2013). Although the stance taken by the UN Women again focuses on the violence against women, there evidence that stiffer laws can tame gendered violence in the context of both sex. The National Criminal Justice Reference Service of the US (2001, p. 1) is cognisant of the fact that the Internet and other communications technologies have increased opportunities for cases such as cyber stalking and child exploitation but also notes that law enforcement can help control violence and abuses as regards the use of such technologies. Calvert (2009, cited by Karaian 2012, p. 59) argues that abuses such as sexting should be stopped by the force of the law because on its own, sexting is a practice that embodies various harms. Thus, to allow it to go unpunished is to approve it, authenticate it and endorse it and, in so doing, to back a culture that exploits people’s (especially girls’) sexuality. This in essence means that laws on gendered violence need to be reviewed regularly because ICT tools are evolving rapidly and so are the possible ways in which gendered violence and abuse may be expressed. Conclusion Gendered violence and abuse is expressed through the Internet and other media technology in various forms such as cyber bullying, cyber stalking and cyber harassment. Some people may also track their targets mobile phones, use computer monitoring software, attract their targets through sexting, and so forth. In most cases, the main targets are women and girls but as discussed in the paper, access to various forms of communication technologies also makes boys and men equally potential targets of both male and female perpetrators. Education and strong legislations that condemn acts of gendered violence using ICT tools have been discussed as some of the strategies that can be adopted to deter the vice. References Basiliere, J 2010, ‘Transgendered politics on a global stage’, In D F Ericson, The politics of inclusion and exclusion: Identity politics in twenty-first century America, Taylor & Francis, New York. Dimond, J P, Fiesler, C & Bruckman, A S, Domestic violence and information communication technologies, Interacting with Computers, viewed 26 May 2013, Humphries, D 2009, Women, violence, and the media: Readings in feminist criminology, UPNE, New Hampshire. Jewkes, Y 2010, ‘Much ado about nothing? Representations and realities of online soliciting of children’, Journal of Sexual Aggression, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 5-18. Karaian, L 2012, ‘Lolita speaks: ‘Sexting,’ teenage girls and the law’, Crime, Media, Culture, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 57 –73. 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