You are definitely right when you say start; because this was just my start…Violence has a beginning and an end. Violence begins with my 3 previous points and continues to develop into a serious action when others are involved, or the aggressor is violent toward themselves. When the structural violence and the environment are major factors, actions like Jake from Once Were Warriors, decides to batter his wife like a rag doll because he was under appreciated when losing his job. What does he expect? But because of the impoverished community, and the lack of motivation to get involved with community or family, the family resorts to alcohol and drug abuse, gang activity and a lack of love or respect for any family members. For me, this is where the gender roles were played out, because as the father was seen as the head of the family, after losing his job, he is seen as weak and inferior. However, not a moment later, was he back in power seat, and like you said Kelly, instead of using positive strength, Jake brutally beats his wife until she is bleeding and immobile. For me, this film emphasized the issues women and men face, and how they are such different roles. Not only are they different roles, but violent acts are differently directed for men and women. The boys in the film resort to gang activity, physical fighting and aggression, as the women are passive to violence, as well as the victim to it.

    So Gender roles within violence=

                        Men…………………….dominators/fighters/intimidate

                    Women……………………inferior/victims/passive

As men are the dominate role, of course the women would be inferior, but if we are trying to better society and make the changes, men need to stand up, and women as well need to stand up and turn from being passive to proactive. Turning off the violence was something we did speak so lightly of, as we meant well with it, we did not see the depth of violence out there at the time of this class discussion. For me now, turning off the violence is to be more proactive, and if I know a girl who has been through something I will encourage her not to be the victim, but to want to tell others what happened, and find out ways of change. How to Create change!

So if we have the 3 factors of crime/violence, knowing where is can be created & know the gender roles within the factors of violence and gender, many ask, what now?

Personally, I love the idea of being a mentor. Volunteer; make a difference in the lives of the youth. Reach those who have no resources, no caring parents, no after school support, and those who reach for the gang life.

EDUcate… educate all people. Ostracizing one or some will only create such people like the columbine shooters, and now one who we would name as the VTshooter. If someone does not have friend, befriend them. If they still don’t want friends, at least be nice. Bullying often leads to violence, so encourage, and uplift.

            Like Katz offers in A Few Good Men, we are informed that instead of simply encouraging women to be non passive respondents to violence and criminal behavior, men also need to take home plate. As men take the lead in this department, we as women will have those loving, caring non violent men take our sides and be supported by them. Imagine if half of the men in this world actually cared enough to do something and actually did, would we face as much violence and physical harm to ourselves?

            Dryfoos’ piece “What Works and Why?”, also mentions many ways of change, and one was through media changes. Changes such as having less violent television and more empowering media put on for and by the youth. Dryfoos offers education in all various forms, and not to forget, she also mentions more parent involvement. This struck me as first cool, second, hard to do. It’s great she includes this, but will it happen, when mom and dad are out trying to make money for the night/day? Funny that we use xanga for our essays, I just recently saw a “parents” section on this live blog. The section talks about what xanga is, how much of your child’s’ profile is view by strangers v friends. How perfect for what we are discussing, so my question is how will parental involvement make a change??

            One more thing…I will certainly will miss this class, the discussions, the tears shed, the nights unslept and the best profs ever, I proudly think of Paperclips when I think change, and know change happens. The progression of what is violence, where does it start, what is the action of violence and how does gender play a role continue on to ask how, how to change it, and how we all can do our part.

Violence was not the answer then when Hitler killed millions, and it’s not the answer now when Cho Seung-hui, the shooter of the VT killings killed 32, and then took his own life. Violence is not the answer, and never will be. Violence to take away your on feelings/pain out on another soul is never right, yet it still happens daily. I was and will always be touched and inspired by the middle schoolers at Whitwell, to turn of the Violence that was once apart of daily life, by remembering those who have lost and those who knew many who died unfairly. Wearing my yellow paperclip and spreading peace to all is fine enough for me. Teaching those who are ready to hear, and we could all change the idea of what violence is. We all see violence and gender all around, but I feel as if we do something, provide help, we will be helping to turn off all the violence.

Molly McCormick

Integrative essay # 5

Violence & Gender

            Violence and gender, what a title, and what a progression we have made through this course. I found many things striking and worth the time to dive deeper into. As I wrote many posts after class, or quickly jotted down notes in class, I was constantly reminded of what we can do about the violence, and constantly interested in knowing its many sources.

            As we began the class we skimmed past how “violence is best understood.” In Boys will be Boys, by Medzian, we read this; “violence is best understood out of an interaction between a biological potential and certain kinds of environments.” In my mind, this concept was the head start to how I would think in terms of violence, because out of this would be the first BIG thought we as a class had developed.  Early on we read about Structural Violence, knowing it is a huge concept, yet not knowing how to make sense of what it really meant. Few had heard of the phrase, and just recently was the first time I discovered what it really was all about. In a class called Race, Crime, Gender and Justice, that I had taken a semester prior, we focused on the phrase very heavily as we read through the ethnography called, In Search of Respect: the story of a man finding the street secrets to crack/drug dealing. So what is structural violence exactly… this was the question many asked in class after reading the Spergel piece, “Gang Member Demographics and Gang Subculture.” Spergel says something, which should be the new way of defining the start of what structural violence is. He says “A process of destructive socialization occurs: youth who have insufficient social support at home from separated, alienated, or unemployed parents receive inadequate and minimal attention at school where they consequently fail or are inadequately educated.” He continues to say that because they are so unattached in schools, after school programs hardly mean a thing to these children and the only thing that may allow them to feel connected to the world by creating attachments are gangs. With this scope into how youth are not a priority in their parents’ eyes, what shall we as a world do? Essentially, if we have children who feel their attachments must be made through a violent and disrespectful gang life, we are raising killers, and criminals. Would you agree?

So, one, we have structural violence beginning in the inadequacy in the ways we raise/don’t raise our children. && Two, we have violence coming from deprivation. Deprivation meaning deprivation within communities and neighborhoods, like the following; when you have a community with successful working parents and children involved in schools, crime is less likely to occur. However, on the flip side of that, we can say that deprivation among a family that lives below the means, and has to work to survive, literally, that is deprivation. ß And that is how deprivation=violence. To further explain: when there is a decrease in jobs, there will be an increase in crime. Fewer resources make people scared, and when those without a job need resources, crime may be a cure to the problem, often fining this to be true. Deprivation is a scary thought, why, because many people today and yesterday and in the future will be deprived [and are]. The deadliest form of deprivation is poverty…

So if crime begins from destructive socialization, our environment and deprivation, what kind of crime is created from these 3 starting points??

Wowzers, this section has been so intense! For now i am just going to write about the week of April 3rd and 5th, and just talk on my reaction from those to days alone. I will back track and cover this info again, but... for now, i want to say wow.

Wow to all the women who have experienced abuse

wow to the ability of the women to give in, rather than let loose--and get free.

wow to the men who think they are the control, and power of the world, and wow most of all

to the women who have the ability and agility to open their eyes and see.

When watching the film, Terror in the home: Domestic Abuse in America, i was shocked to hear so much info on the numbers of women who are daily subjected to abuse, and even death by the ones who said they would 'love and cherish' them forever. As i  quickly scribbled all the names and notes down of each women and her story, i began to look at life with a whole different light. I saw men as men, but now i see some as haters, abusers, and control freaks. The ones who have to put a women down; a women who has given them a family, one who contributes to the household and growth of a family and marriage--(some)Men put us down. Some men feel so twisted inside that they must belittle us, and put us down, to feel something. The women in this film were made to feel like less than dirt, and were often silenced to save their own well being. The film is a great underscore to the "Healthy Choices" poem that we talked about in class. The Women in this women are to shut up and be silenced, and do the things of a "women's duty" to be "given praises?!?" The women in this poem feel inadequate to the extend of taking the abuse, and batter for the sake of having the choice of life. Both the film and the poem make claims on how women choose battering and heavy abuse for the sake of life, life of their children and security in tier lives.

As for "Rape Day," do not even get me started on the quick note taking. While watching Rape is.... the words of the narrator still resinate in my head. The word of rape by children, men and women; the unheard cries for help, and the souls that WILL NEVER EVER BE THE SAME. life is unfair, my mom used to say, but life should not EVER have to be unfair to the fact that women/men/children who have been raped should have to be a victim, always hating themselves, and never coping with the unfair experience. The line that someone said in the film was, "RAPE IS LIKE KILLING SOMEONE AND ASKING FOR THEM TO GET UP...BUT RAPE IS REALLY THE KILLING OF THE SOUL, AND YOU WILL NEVER BE THE PERSON YOU WERE BEFORE YOU WERE RAPED AS YOU ARE TO THE PERSON YOU ARE NOW." Thats was vital to me, that was the line that stood out the most to me, that disturbed me and made me frustrated. Why? Well if rape is the biggest crime that is most under reported, how unfair, and how are things supposed to change? What can i do? Well... as the movie went on, and loved ones [friends] left the room feeling uncomfortable ... now i have to think about how unfair rape is... and feel helpless knowing/thinking I CANT MAKE THAT MUCH CHANGE. ughh.

Within this section of the "Violation of Body Space" class has been a tough room to be in. Class is never something we all walk into knowing how the emotional feelings and aftermath of that day's discussion will turn out. The Violation of Body Space not only means rape, but it covers men on men rape, as well as how the media drives out the stereotypes of who/what women are in today's society. Many times in class we have asked, who is to blame and today Whitney came up with an excellent way of concluding that thought. Whitney said, "We do not need SOMEONE to blame, but we need to find ways to change this ongoing cycle. We need to get the focus off what men are doing, and focus on how to tend to the issues of women." This is so true. No one is to blame, society as a whole is to blame. I myself have fed into adds and supported musicians that do not promote women in a positive manner; so like me, we are all to blame. But it is time to stop pointing the finger. Who cares about who started it, we need to take action to change, action to empower and action to educate women, and men. Janice Mirikitani spoke about change in her poem Breaking Tradition, that I read back in the First Year Experience, and the purpose of that poem was Mirikitani telling her mother she was no longer going to be like her mother. She was done subjecting herself to what was expected, rather she wanted to 'break tradition' and do her own thing; establish her independence. Like that poem, we read Healthy Choices, also by Mirikitani who in a similar voice writes about what a man may expect from a woman in a heterosexual relationship, but as Mirikitani loves to do, she does not except that as her role, and goes for the role she knows she is capable of. This was a great visual way of seeing what it means to experience a violation of body space, because the poem is read with a tone of spite. Janice kind of writes with a 'If/then' tone, if i obey the abuser, he then may spare me another night of pain... If I "keep quiet" then I will get praises. With such a tone, the spiteful attitude expresses the suppression women feel when put in situations of violence, even situations of objectified behavior.

When I say objectified behavior I mean, the behavior the "Dispatches from Girls Gone Wild ."  The article and our in class discussion provoked many thoughts. Thoughts on whose to blame when a girl gets raped, why was she drinking so much or wearing a short skirt. A few incidents shared from the Girls Gone Wild videos and "businessmen and women" were a disruption to my own thoughts. Great point put out by Brian was that, Rape should never be the vitcim's fault, she/he should never be to blame--no matter what. Yes! I completely agree, and i certainly have a hard time understanding why anyone would disagree. I think as a female we need to be careful of what we do so we do not run into a situation that brings on rape, but that is a fine line of "bringing rape on yourself!" Girls who drink to get drunk at parties are not walking around wearing a sign on tier face saying "Rape me tonight, in a couple more drinks, i'll be wasted..." Same with girls who are wearing almost close to nothing, they are not advertising that they have no concern with how they want to be treated sexually. For anyone to disagree with this--it is crazy! No one is out there looking to be Raped, Sexually Assaulted, or have any unwated sexual attention.

In conjuction with the thought, and action of sexual assault and rape, I am not only learning it here in this class, but in my service learning. The article, "Violence Against Women: Physical and Mental Health Effects," links perfectly with the service learning site of Life Choices. Life Choices strives to educate men and women on STD's, Pregnancy, Counseling of abusive relationships, ect. This reading linked things I have learned at Life Choices, that i have been able to share with others at the GMU Health Expo. Such things that paralled were facts about STD's that not many people know about as well as facts on Rape that i also did not know about. It says the following, "Fifteen percent of women have significant vaginal tears, and 1% require surgical repair." Also, the other part that i had learned at Life Choices and that we strive to educate others on was this information on STD's; "Gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomonal infections, and syphilis are the most common, but there is also the life-threatening risk of hepatitis B and HIV." Not many people know these facts, but while reading them, I was struck by it, since it was a topic we had just discussed in detail at the annual in-service training meeting.

Another lovely essay... 3 i think!

Molly McCormick

"First boredom with lack of resources and high visibility of crime in neglected communities create the conditions for turning to others who are similarly situated, that is, peer groups that offer a social outlet. Second, the stress on families from living in marginalized areas combined with financial struggles create tension and, in many cases, violent at home.” This is quoted by Patterson in the Youth Gangs: A developmental Perspective piece. He concludes the thought by concluding that delinquency is also linked to many roles within a situation of economic stress, and lack of resources. I find this quote so true to youth who have fallen into the trapped life of violence. Why? Well, most youth who are involved in gangs and delinquent behavior are mostly found in the inner cities, due to inner cities being more known for lower income, and lesser conditions and resources for change. Similarly to this visual of who and how crime is directly affecting, the film Once Were Warriors perfectly displays the low income, lack of resources that violence thrives from. Sadly, the whole family is exposed to unwanted violence, and limitless exposure to destructive behaviors. The entire family is constantly stuck under a cloud of misery finding no escape. Many times, many youth these days may feel like this due to the peer pressure they are giving into, as well as exposed to with the lack of parental presence and influence in their life.

            Youth these days are exposed to drug use, alcohol, peer pressure, skipping school, puberty changes, dealing with where to fit in/fear of fitting in, and sexual experimentation. Addressed in the film The Brutal Truth it said that many youth resort to violence because they cannot deal with emotions. Some youth are just not sure what to do with the emotions, therefore violence may be the way they react to emotions that are too unbearable to deal with.

            As we missed out on in class, but I learned from my Youth Advocacy and Empowerment class, when Juan Pacheco and Kevin Sanchez came to speak about Youth violence and gangs, I was shortly reminded of what gang life teaches you. Many join gangs to feel apart of something, a group, or an in crowd. Many join to feel loved, and to feel accepted. Not only did they share this, but they shared that although they were both apart of the gang life, they are rising above it, and finding that change can happen. They promote Barrios Unidos—united neighborhoods, a gang prevention organization to reach all youth, and even those high up in the county who can actually implement change. This is a prime example of the ways change can turn a violent life around--unlike what we saw with Rocket in City of God. Although, Rocket did not prevail with life after the gang banging, Kevin and Juan are living examples that change is possible, but it may take more than one try. Persistence is key!

            Although, no one can pin point where violence starts, it is all over, not just in inner cities, and not just in suburban schools where the outcasts become school shooters. In class we asked “where does the violence start,” and how can we prevent violence. Simply discussing the many different types of violent acts, and youth acts of violence makes me crazy. Often times, like stated above, we know violence is not just produced from “bad kids” but more so because of structural violence, lack of resources, lack of parental influence and lack of mentor/positive media influences. My only thought of how to stop violence is being a mentor. Due to these problems, youth can easily fall into these traps of peer pressure and often parents are either influencing these choices or not around to stop the influence of violence in their lives. Mentoring a child can save lives, and redirect troubled youth to walk a clearer path in life. Without mentor we often have youth building bombs in their bedrooms, as well as inner city youth, dealing drugs. In the spoken word piece entitled, I Prayed for More Gun Control and Got Better Back round Checks, by Tonya Marie Matthews she bitterly discusses her view on how society views who the “typical teen killers” would be. She references “they don’t wear oversized FUBU jeans Malcolm X tees these well-armed juvenile assassins are sporting Abercrombie caps and Gap Khakis.” Matthews is bitter about the othering that society places on violence being on black youth, when really it is not a color, but an epidemic among many youth. Society ‘red flags’ a certain look, which is unfair and wrong. “Trench coats in the dead of summer, v braids in my son’s hair,” no one can say those are valid ways to discover who is killer in the local school. How ignorant. Ugh! I agree with Matthews, we cannot just generalize all youth under one category called “violent.” Not all youth wearing baggy jeans is drug dealer/gang banger, and not all youth in Gap khakis are one to be avoided.

            We as people need to open our minds and say no to violence. Parents need to make a bigger influence in the lives of their youth, and youth around them. We all need to educate ourselves as well as others. Schools need programs that show the depth of violence, almost to the affect of scaring youth until they are changed. Scared straight, the show that used to take delinquent youth to prisons, and be yelled at by prison inmates about how prison sucks, and how they will end up there if they continue to steal, and commit stupid crimes. To me the show seemed to be somewhat effective based on the fact that youth were afraid and were actually brought to the prison, and met inmates who encouraged better behavior. (or else)  One show on ABC was call Brat Camp, taking about 12 “brats” youth who lied, cheated, stole, and basically anything violent, or not abiding with the law, on a strenuous boot camp like show to expose them to isolation and fear. Expose the youth to life not always going the way you wanted it, and you not always having the power. These youths were tough, yet still yearned for mommy and daddy. So possibly having shows like this, and having more REAL in your FACE tools of educating the youth who think their lives are just like a violent video game, where you press start, kill someone and you’ve won the game.

Integretive Essay Tres! (thats 3)

Wow.. today's discussion on "thats so gay," and other derogatory slang that people in society, including myself throw around was insane. Not only did i find it insane, but like every other class it has stuck with me all day. First, as i sat in class, i thought about the example Brian gave about being called a Faggot in the negative way by peers who disapproved. Now when i heard that, it made me sad to hear such maliciousness-- but more so when Brian accepted in after so long of not accepting it, as he said, he "reclaimed" the word. Now, i know he is not the only one in the universe to reclaim a negative word, but I am just taken aback to hear about this to this magnitude. I have never heard a person with hispanic back round , reclaiming Spick. In contrast, many black people have no problem with the N-word--which i find disgusting, and degrading to all, who ever fought to change the past. I find it unacceptable and sad that blacks make the Historical word of Nigger, into something fun, and cool. Dictionary.com says this about the definition of Nigger; "The term nigger is now probably the most offensive word in English. Its degree of offensiveness has increased markedly in recent years, although it has been used in a derogatory manner since at least the Revolutionary War."

•  These are the first three definitions of Nigger:

  1.	Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a. a black person. b. a member of any dark-skinned people.

  2.	Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a person of any race or origin regarded as contemptible, inferior, ignorant, etc.

  3.	a victim of prejudice similar to that suffered by blacks; a person who is economically, politically, or socially disenfranchised

<-----HOW STUPID!!! So only black people can RECLAIM NIGGER... a word that is hateful?!!?!

Similarly to this, as I signed online, i read the first news story headline which read this: That’s so gay’ prompts a lawsuit. Wow, how ironic to the discussion today! i was stunned. The news story reads that  a girl was replying to a student who asked her if she had 10 moms when she said she was mormon, and her response was, "that's so gay." Hateful, and ignorant, but who is to blame. The media and society RECLAIMS this phrase as only meaning, "How stupid, how silly," just like this girl meant. Well, to me, this is why we should not Reclaim words with such hateful meanings, histories, and implications. If thats what the word means, changing its meaning is simple not going to happen....Here is the full story....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17388702/?GT1=9145  but for real.. hate words are not meant to describe a situation as stupid, or silly. In Boys Don't Cry, I am pretty sure we never heard Brandon saying " I am gay," and certainly we never watched Brandon just stand to the side and allow for this behavior and reaction to happen.

To set one thing straight, i did not say i was perfect, or am. By no means do I want to come off like that, but... I do not allow myself to say "thats so gay," or "thats retarded." I became aware of the impact of those phrases in High school. Once in my English class, a student commeted with "that's so gay" and the teacher quickly chimed in with, "Please do not say that, my brother IS gay." I was aware at the moment. Time stopped and i was educated. Some gay people do not like hearing that over and over. Thankfully, my self control compelled others to not do it either. Also, in high school, i volunteered with teens with mental, physical and emotional disabilities. That is Retarded youth, nothing else can be "Retarded." As the Black Eye Peas came out with the song, "Lets Get Retarded," I know they did  not mean it like this, in a bad way, but why, retarded is define by dictionary.com like this; "Occurring or developing later than desired or expected; delayed." So... their song, makes no PC sense, and frankly, i just turned off that song. When people around me would say, "That's so retarded" i would cringed, and ask them not to say it around me, and would ask them, How is this mentally handicapped. Certainly, I know most people would never say, "that's so retarded," around a group of people with disabilities, so WHY SAY IT AT all? Ivy has taught us the importance of Language... let us embrace it and make the world a better place.