What are women's issues?

Ma Cherie

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I've been looking into several issues lately, I know that some of you have noticed them, FGM (female genital mutilation) and human trafficking. :p But these issues are considered to be "Women's Issues" because women and girls seem to be victims.

Rape
Reproductive Rights
Honor Killings
Femicide (I'll explain what this means another time)
Female Genital Mutilation (there's also MGM)
Human Trafficking or Sex Trafficking
Domestic Violence

I was wondering, should these be considered Women's Issues? I feel that these are issues aren't really tackled all that much is becasue they're considered to be a woman's issue. Rape is a good example of this, it seems that women are simply taught how to avoid being raped. But how does this solve the issue of rape in general? I also feel that domestic violence is treated the same way.

Understand that I am not some feminist trying bash to men in and blame men for why these things occur. However, I am someone who is concerned about the plight of women in the US and in other countries.

Now, my question is this, if society didn't consider these to be women's issues would alot more be done to stop these things from happening?
 
Unfortunately, rape will always happen. You can reduce it, but you can not prevent it. It's just like prison, you say its escape proof, but it NEVER is. Not even supermax.
 
GoldCoinLover said:
Unfortunately, rape will always happen. You can reduce it, but you can not prevent it. It's just like prison, you say its escape proof, but it NEVER is. Not even supermax.

You can say that, but what I want to know is why people rape in the first place. And I know that men are raped in prison. But what I'm trying to get at is why are the people who rape are men? And why does it seem that women are merly taugh how to avoid rape?
 
Ma Cherie said:
I've been looking into several issues lately, I know that some of you have noticed them, FGM (female genital mutilation) and human trafficking. :p But these issues are considered to be "Women's Issues" because women and girls seem to be victims.

Rape
Reproductive Rights
Honor Killings
Femicide (I'll explain what this means another time)
Female Genital Mutilation (there's also MGM)
Human Trafficking or Sex Trafficking
Domestic Violence

I was wondering, should these be considered Women's Issues? I feel that these are issues aren't really tackled all that much is because they're considered to be a woman's issue. Rape is a good example of this, it seems that women are simply taught how to avoid being raped. But how does this solve the issue of rape in general? I also feel that domestic violence is treated the same way.

Understand that I am not some feminist trying bash to men in and blame men for why these things occur. However, I am someone who is concerned about the plight of women in the US and in other countries.

Now, my question is this, if society didn't consider these to be women's issues would a lot more be done to stop these things from happening?

You must keep in mind though Ma Cherie that most of those issues that you pointed out are not solely for women. Domestic violence is one of the biggest crimes where I live, and most of it is caused by women against men. Yes, you read right women against men. I cannot begin to count the amount of times I read the local newspaper to see stories of wives beating their husbands to death with a blunt object, murdering them, or destroying their property like their car. Maybe four out of every ten cases are actually men who commit the crime.

Another issue I would like to point out is rape. If you feel that only women are the only victims then you are sorely mistaken. Men are just as much victims as women are. I am not talking about prison rape either. I am talking about women who buy guns and rape men. If any guy says that a man who cannot defend himself is a weakling, and deserved what happened to him then they are so far past beyond the point of ignorance that it is not even funny. I do not care if you are a karate master or not, if somebody had a loaded .45 to your skull you would do what they say, regardless of your self-defense training. Also during rape just because a man is physically aroused does not mean he is enjoying it. It is the same for women as well. The body may react to the sexual stimulation, but the emotional torture of being violated is just devastating.

It is said that only 5,000 cases of men being raped are reported every year in the United States because people in the law enforcement community do not take such an issue seriously. It is estimated that ten times the amount reported is the estimated result of men being raped each year, and the number is rising. Not because of women with guns, rather with date rape drugs. College girls (and guys even) have now found a way to take advantage of men by using date rape drugs. If anybody finds that okay, you seriously need help. This is not some laughing issue here. This is serious whether you like it or not. Men are increasingly becoming rape victims, even though the number may not be near as high as with women. It is just that those incidents are never reported because of embarrassment and shame. I find it extremely sad to be honest. (Even though the number may not be climbing in a huge spike, it still has increased regardless with men being raped with date rape drugs.)

I remember watching a special on television one time about a man who was date raped in college, and ended up getting AIDS because of it. He came up with a way to help prevent date rape from happening. He designed these little coasters that you can buy before going to a party. Put a drop of your drink on it, and it will change colors to indicate whether someone has tampered with your drink. It is a rather ingenious idea, however there still will be one person who will not be cautious and will become another victim of date rape. You can help find ways to avoid rape, but you will never be able to find ways to prevent it because there will always be that one person who will beat the system, or that on person that is just too careless.

I would also like to touch back on base about men being raped. If other men find that an embarrassment and pathetic, then listen to this. Last week a UMSL (University of Missouri - St. Louis) student was raped sodomized in her apartment. She was only twenty-one years old. The police put a sketch of the rapist out, and a few days later the rapist was caught. Come to find out the rapist was not a man, no rather a thirteen year old boy. Let me say that again, a thirteen year old boy. He used a toy gun to rape the college student. If you think being raped by a woman is bad as a man, how do you think this poor woman feels being raped by a thirteen year old? It is not so funny now is it?

The other points that you made out Ma Cherie such as honor killings, human trafficking, and reproductive rights are also not exclusive to women. There is a heavy debate about the reproductive rights and granted it is the woman's body that is harboring the embryo or fetus depending on the state of pregnancy. However, it takes two to create a child, and I think a man while maybe not his body still has a right to have a say and decision on the issue as well. On human trafficking, there are men, as well as, women used for slave labor and as sex slaves. I just don't think you hear about as much. There really is not much of a debate there as both sides have their reasons for committing such acts. As for male genital mutilation, it just makes my skin crawl to think that men do that. The same goes for women. So overall most of the issues that you pointed out Ma Cherie are not just exclusive to women, and shouldn't be either considering the amount of crimes unreported by men because of all the macho BS men are led to believe in.

As for your question on why rapists are men, as I said before not all rapists are men. There have even been incidences where even women rape other women. Why do people rape you ask? There is a number of factors that could be discussed on the issue. For some it is a power trip. Destroying somebody sexually makes them feel powerful. Some do it out of desperation due to them not being able to have sex. Others do it simply because they were abused when they were younger, probably raped, and in turn commit the same actions that were done upon them (one giant vicious circle if you want to look at it that way). So there are many psychological reasons for a person to rape male or female. It is just trying to understand their psyche and stopping them before they destroy too many lives. As bad as it sounds you will never be able to save everybody. You sometimes have to have another victim before catching the perpetrator. It is sickening, but unless there is some full proof way of stopping rapists before there start (which I doubt there ever will be), you are always going to have this kind of thing happen.

It is disheartening, rape I mean. Actually all of the issues that you pointed out are disheartening. I think rape just affects me the most because I know people who have become victims of such a horrible crime (both men and women). Therefore, when you get right down to it, I think that these issues are more on a broader spectrum with both sexes, it is just that you do not hear about it much with men because of all the machismo masculine mind set that most men have and refuse to take such matters seriously. Most of these issues can destroy a man emotion just as much as it can to a woman, it is just taking that into consideration that is the problem. Does this help any Ma Cherie?
:?
Doc :wave:
 
Yes Doc, most of the issues you point out are not exclusivlely women's issues. But I think in the society we live in, it seems that we're trained to believe that some of these issues are women's issues. And at times it seems that even in circumstances such as rape people don't always look at the man as being the victim. I don't say this because I feel that women are always the victim.

Now, I can tell you what femicide means:

The term femicide was used to describe the murders in Juarez and in Guatemala City. What happened was these muders were never investigated, these are appearantly raped before they are killed, mutilated, and even chopped up. You can learn more about this here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femicide

I also forgot to point out dowry deaths. In India in particular, about 5000 women a year are killed due to dowry burnings. When a girl is married off her family has to provide her husbands family with gifts. And it seems that whenever the gifts aren't enough the husband takes it out on his wife. I haven't looked too much into this issue so I can't give all the details :sorry: .
 
Ma Cherie said:
Yes Doc, most of the issues you point out are not exclusively women's issues. But I think in the society we live in, it seems that we're trained to believe that some of these issues are women's issues. And at times it seems that even in circumstances such as rape people don't always look at the man as being the victim. I don't say this because I feel that women are always the victim.

I think there are a number of reasons that attribute to this problem. The main problem is that it has been ingrained into our history, society, culture, and future generations that women are and always will be the weaker sex. Hearing crimes such as rape against women also helps enforce this mentality even more. I also believe that because of the whole machismo masculinity mentality that men will never truly acknowledge that they can be just as weak as women can. I think the media has a lot to do with it as well. Rape stories with women get high ratings, while rape stories with men are hardly noticed at all because people would criticize it. I also think that special interest groups on both sides like to play on these types of issues as well. Male groups use it to make them look stronger, while feminists use it to advocate that women are always the victim to men, and never the other way around. Simply put it is a vicious cycle that has been created due to a combination of the media, cultural, societal, and possibly even religious issues in general that continues this misleading judgment and mentality.

Doc :wave:
 
I agree with what has been said before me.
I don't think any certain crimes/issues should be regarded as "women's issues".
That implies they only concerns women, and as we know, that's not true at all.
Crimes and violence ultimately affect everyone, the whole of society.
To call by gender is divisive.
People are people first and foremost.

Not all men are unconcerned or lazy about "women's issues", of course. But to call them "women's issues" gives a further disincentive to those who are already not interested to get involved to help.

Breast cancer is another thing sometimes thought of as a "women's issue". But no one exists in isolation. People's friends and family, male and female, suffer as well.

I think it's a mislabelling that does no one any good.
 
Oh I forgot, and you've probably seen it in the wikipedia article, but the term femicide means the killing of women in particular. Just so you'll know.
 
what is "female genital mutilation"?
 
Ma Cherie said:
It is what it sounds like. To find out more about FGM look at these articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/

I once sat through a whole documentary about this, which was depicting a minor girl in Africa who had it done.....her parents made her go through with it to be sure that she wouldn't have boyfriends (and have sex with them) before her marriage. However, the documentary didn't quite tell about her "after marriage" life after the pain she went through.
 
I question this a lot. There has been a study to show that women who have been "circumcised" still experience sexual arousal. As well as expericing orgasms. Now, I wonder about this, because it doesn't seem to make much sense in a way, maybe these women went through Type 1 and 2 of being circumcised which is removel of part or all the clitoris and removal of part or all of labia minora.

http://www.rcog.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=874
 

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