'Torture Porn' Makers Shrug Off the Label
As "torture porn" movies deepen their imaginative excursions into terror and violence against women, some of their creators are not only defending themselves from attacks by women's activists, they're calling their work feminist.
(WOMENSENEWS)--When the movie "Hostel" raked in $19 million on its debut weekend and gripped the No. 1 spot for a week in 2005, some critics heralded the comeback of horror, which had been in a box office slump for a decade.
From, Women's News
Showing posts with label sexual-assault. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sexual-assault. Show all posts
Saturday, March 22, 2008
United Nations Finds US Not Combating Racism Effectively
The United Nations (UN) Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination called attention to the wide racial disparities that continue to exist in the US. The Committee concluded March 7 after finding the US lacking in its pursuit of the end of racial discrimination. The Committee's report on the US criticized persistent racial profiling, the dismantling of affirmative action, inadequate access to health care, and the racial disparities in the US criminal justice system. The UN also condemned the racial inequities in reproductive and sexual health care in the US. The Center for Reproductive Rights reports that that the Committee urged the US to reduce its high rates of maternal and infant mortality, to decrease the rate of unplanned pregnancies, and to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. The Reproductive Health Reality Check pointed out that women of color have significantly worse sexual health than white women.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Quarter of U.S. women suffer domestic violence
WASHINGTON - About a quarter of U.S. women suffer domestic violence, U.S. health officials reported on Thursday, with ongoing health problems that one activist likened to the effects of living in a war zone.
Some men also experience domestic violence, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey found.
The CDC said 23.6 percent of women and 11.5 percent of men reported being a victim of what it called "intimate partner violence" at some time in their lives.
The CDC defined this as threatened, attempted or completed physical or sexual violence or emotional abuse by a spouse, former spouse, current or former boyfriend or girlfriend or a dating partner. The CDC estimates that 1,200 women are killed and 2 million injured in domestic violence annually.
Read the rest of this Reuters report.
Original CDC Report
Some men also experience domestic violence, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey found.
The CDC said 23.6 percent of women and 11.5 percent of men reported being a victim of what it called "intimate partner violence" at some time in their lives.
The CDC defined this as threatened, attempted or completed physical or sexual violence or emotional abuse by a spouse, former spouse, current or former boyfriend or girlfriend or a dating partner. The CDC estimates that 1,200 women are killed and 2 million injured in domestic violence annually.
Read the rest of this Reuters report.
Original CDC Report
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Why we use primary sources
Bewildered, academics pore over sex-trade hysteria
Farley's book cites -- incorrectly -- Brents and Hausbeck's primary research, and arrives at a very different conclusion.
Farley's book cites -- incorrectly -- Brents and Hausbeck's primary research, and arrives at a very different conclusion.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Economists Say Movie Violence Might Temper the Real Thing
A new study challenges conventional wisdom, suggesting that violent films prevent violent crime by attracting and keeping would-be assailants occupied.
I know why psychologists are upset about this study (other than the economists' encroachment into our turf): the conventional wisdom among psychologists is that catharsis does not work - watching violence does not 'get it out of your system.' Fighting this folk belief was a long and hard battle. I think many psychologists see this study as saying that catharsis works. Nope. It's saying that violent people like violence - either real or fictional. And fictional violence is so much easier to come by than the real thing so they go for the easy choice.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Why I study rape the way I study rape.
My research on sexual assault is on how third-party observers view the rapist, survivor and the situation. Students are more interested -- and understand better -- areas about sexual assault which I don't study: survivor reactions, and pornography and rape. It makes sense for a psychologist to study how women (and men) respond to sexual assault, how they cope and how to speed the coping process; and it also makes sense for a psychologist to study the relationship between pornography and sexual assault. To students, it seems trivial to study how much a person blames a rapist for raping and what factors make people blame a rape survivor more for being raped. None of these things seem useful.
In this article, from Slate, there's an excellent example about why I study rape the way I do. People don't view rape the same way as other crimes (an excellent set of examples is at the end of the first page and beginning of the second). And, as this whole case shows, the way third-party observers view rape can have a great deal of impact on the well-being of people.
In this article, from Slate, there's an excellent example about why I study rape the way I do. People don't view rape the same way as other crimes (an excellent set of examples is at the end of the first page and beginning of the second). And, as this whole case shows, the way third-party observers view rape can have a great deal of impact on the well-being of people.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
What make a society prone to rape? A Sociological View
I found this old talk announcement on my computer.
What makes a society prone to sexual assault and rape? Professor Peggy Reeves Sanday addressed this question this morning with students in a combined session of two classes, one in sociology and one in philosophy. Sanday is a distinguished anthropologist who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.
Professor Sanday did research on 95 band and tribal societies to see whether rape is a universal phenomenon. It is not, according to Sanday's results. She conducted her study in the late 1970's and published it in 1981 as the lead essay in a special issue on rape in the _Journal of Social Issues_. Rape is not universal. Of the 95 band and tribal societies she studied, Sanday found 47% to be rape-free and 18% rape-prone, with the remaining 35% difficult to classify as one or the other.
The rape-free societies, in which sexual assault is rare, exhibited common characteristics. In them, (1) there are explicit codes emphasizing the importance of consent and choice in sexual relations. (2) Women and men are both conceived as active sexual agents, neither passively available for the other at the other's wishes. Both men and women are seen as potential initiators of sexual activity and intimacy. Finally, (3) the same standards of sexually appropriate behavior apply to both women and men. That is, there is no double standard, for example, where women are thought sexually dirty and men sexually normal for the same level of sexual activity.
In the rape-prone societies, there is clear evidence (1) that men rape women regularly or (2) that forced intercourse is considered normal sex. Also, (3) men may use ceremonies or rituals of rape or group sex to (a) punish women for violating sexual norms, (b) to introduce boys and young men to their sexuality, or (c) to display male sexuality, especially to other men. In such societies, commonly, all-male groups have social hegemony or dominate social life through controlling certain important social ceremonies or rituals. These all-male groups may show strong aversion to homosexual or bisexual men and may engage in activities designed to deny unequivocally any such inclinations of their own.
Professor Sanday offered several explanations for the difference between these two types of society. In rape-prone societies, (1) there is a high level of interpersonal violence. (2) There is a pervasive ideology of male toughness and a polar opposition between masculinity and femininity. (3) Women are not respected as fully enfranchised public citizens and have relative low status socially, politically, and/or economically. (4) There are high levels of sexual segregation (and male identity is often represented with centrally displayed phallic symbols). (5) There is social support or at least tolerance, either explicitly or implicitly, for rape and for men who commit rape. Finally, (6) great importance is placed on maintaining a sexual code defining appropriate from inappropriate sexual relations. In societies with these characteristics, rape is more frequent, more likely, and more condoned.
Sanday will give a lecture this afternoon at 4pm in Kissell titled "No Means No." Her visit to Wittenberg is being sponsored by the Departments of Sociology and Philosophy, the Women's Studies Program, the Women's Program Committee, and the Office of the Provost.
What makes a society prone to sexual assault and rape? Professor Peggy Reeves Sanday addressed this question this morning with students in a combined session of two classes, one in sociology and one in philosophy. Sanday is a distinguished anthropologist who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.
Professor Sanday did research on 95 band and tribal societies to see whether rape is a universal phenomenon. It is not, according to Sanday's results. She conducted her study in the late 1970's and published it in 1981 as the lead essay in a special issue on rape in the _Journal of Social Issues_. Rape is not universal. Of the 95 band and tribal societies she studied, Sanday found 47% to be rape-free and 18% rape-prone, with the remaining 35% difficult to classify as one or the other.
The rape-free societies, in which sexual assault is rare, exhibited common characteristics. In them, (1) there are explicit codes emphasizing the importance of consent and choice in sexual relations. (2) Women and men are both conceived as active sexual agents, neither passively available for the other at the other's wishes. Both men and women are seen as potential initiators of sexual activity and intimacy. Finally, (3) the same standards of sexually appropriate behavior apply to both women and men. That is, there is no double standard, for example, where women are thought sexually dirty and men sexually normal for the same level of sexual activity.
In the rape-prone societies, there is clear evidence (1) that men rape women regularly or (2) that forced intercourse is considered normal sex. Also, (3) men may use ceremonies or rituals of rape or group sex to (a) punish women for violating sexual norms, (b) to introduce boys and young men to their sexuality, or (c) to display male sexuality, especially to other men. In such societies, commonly, all-male groups have social hegemony or dominate social life through controlling certain important social ceremonies or rituals. These all-male groups may show strong aversion to homosexual or bisexual men and may engage in activities designed to deny unequivocally any such inclinations of their own.
Professor Sanday offered several explanations for the difference between these two types of society. In rape-prone societies, (1) there is a high level of interpersonal violence. (2) There is a pervasive ideology of male toughness and a polar opposition between masculinity and femininity. (3) Women are not respected as fully enfranchised public citizens and have relative low status socially, politically, and/or economically. (4) There are high levels of sexual segregation (and male identity is often represented with centrally displayed phallic symbols). (5) There is social support or at least tolerance, either explicitly or implicitly, for rape and for men who commit rape. Finally, (6) great importance is placed on maintaining a sexual code defining appropriate from inappropriate sexual relations. In societies with these characteristics, rape is more frequent, more likely, and more condoned.
Sanday will give a lecture this afternoon at 4pm in Kissell titled "No Means No." Her visit to Wittenberg is being sponsored by the Departments of Sociology and Philosophy, the Women's Studies Program, the Women's Program Committee, and the Office of the Provost.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
