The Abuse of women in our culture today

This subject is one that I wish was never an issue. It is the kind of issue that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and my whole upper body shiver as if a cold draft was to blow down my neck. It is the point in the war movies or action tragedies, where you sit there with your fists clenched and wish that you could jump through the flat screen in front of you and hit the man back or worse. The thought of rape and physical abuse against women is a subject that is a "take no prisoners" problem. By this I mean, regardless of the reason or excuse for the action, these men should be taken out back and slowly beaten to death by the women that have been harmed, in order to get a taste of their own medicine.

While reading Dorthy Allison's piece, I found myself in a love-hate battle with the memoir. I never thought that women in America faced violence and abuse at such a young age as she did with her father, which made me extremely angry. A life that becomes shattered at such an early age and left for only that unfortunate soul to pick up the peices and try to mend her life back together. I was unhappy that this story spoke primarily on the hardships of lower, blue-collar, women because growing up in a blue-collar family is an inherit trait that I am proud I have. This story certainly put a strong stereotype for the blue-collar man and I am sure that many women who have read this would assume any man of this class to abuse their wives.

However, all the readings we did for this assingment had a common bond of how inflicting fear through violence on women, certainly gave men the power to use and abuse females of all races, and in some instances even the males. In "War Crimes", men, women, and children were raped and battered by rebels in order to inflict fear and establish dominance in the villages. Citizens were afraid to go out in the fields to work because the rebels would ambush them and have their way. The numbers of people that would go to the local hospital for sexual assault and violence made my temper flair. These authors also showed differences in the views of life after rape. Women in the jungle would go to hospitals to be treated, while Dorothy Allison spoke of her mother be in an actress. She said "She was an actress in the theater of true life, so good that no one suspected what was hidden behind the artfully applied makeup and carefully pinned hair" (Allison, 26). Was this because society in America was too like the one of the jungle, where women were somewhat afraid to admit to being raped because society would act like they were ruined women? It is said that "the stigma of rape leads some men to abandon their wives" (Clarkson, 1). Do women keep this bottled up in fear of what society will think of them? Or is that the way they assume it is to be, since you rarely ever hear word of a friend or family member being raped. Do they keep their mouths shut because everyone else is afraid to open theirs as well?