Ok, so in my Gender & the Media class we have been talking about rape and violence against women, and last Thursday we looked at a study that our teacher did on like 5 or so women's magazines from 1950-1970. She looked at how many times rape or sexual assault was mentioned in the magazines and it was suprisingly little. In fact in all of the magazines she studied for the entirety of the 1950s, rape was only mentioned 35 times total. There was even fewer mention of rape in the same magazines throughout the whole 1960s, even though the number of rapes tripled in that decade!! Anyway, we then looked at the times in which it was mentioned and almost every time it put blame on the victim - interesting, considering you still see that today. One of the stories was a young woman missed her bus and she accepted a ride home from 5 young men (it didn't specify if she knew them or not) but the story claimed that she should have expected it in that situation and that "rape was inevitable". What is that?? This one girl in my class was like, yeah, she asked for it. First of all, if you are literally asking for it, its consensual. Then the girl was like, "Well, I don't think that the University has a very safe campus at all. I mean, it is a long ways from where I have to park to my sorority house and so I just park illegally and I have all these parking tickets and I think the police should accompany you home." So I said to her, "Actually, the University does provide services like Safewalk if you truly are concerned about walking at night by yourself." And then she made some comment under her breath. I know that no one likes being disproven in class, but she sucks. Furthermore, I wanted to say, "You are from Chicago and you don't feel safe in Iowa City?" (because she has an obvious, ANNOYING Chicago accent), but I didn't.
Anyway, thats about all that is going on. I got another 15/15 on my gender quiz. I think I am going to end up doing really well in that class. Next up for a paper in that class is to study two hours of TV and talk about socioeconomic representation. It should be pretty interesting.
About Me
- Shannon
- There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
1 comment:
Hi Pumpkin! It is interesting and amazing that while women have made so many strides in many areas, some things have remained essentially the same as evidenced by the stigma still associated with rape. The number of rapes in the 50's and 60's was small compared to today but the stigma was huge. The 50's was an era of wholesomeness and the admission of being raped took this away and left women feeling dirty and ashamed and many times their families viewed it as a huge embarrassment and would demand that it be kept secret and unreported. Can you imagine a parent doing that?? I would like to think that women today do report the vast majority of rapes but the reality is many do go unreported because of the scrutiny women face and the belief by some that they must have asked for it or somehow encouraged it. I just hope you and Briana never have to go through anything like that. I do worry about you girls being on campus late at night and remember to use the buddy system at all times and never go out alone!! I don't care if you are waiting for the cambus...stay in the library until you see it coming down the street. Yeah, I know what you are thinking...here goes Mom again....but really sweetie, you need to be very careful at all times and be aware of your surroundings as well. Okay, I will stop now. I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!!! MOM
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