Personally, this week’s lesson was incredibly valuable to me because I learned about the experiences many women go through, and I was able to see how all the information I have learned from this class connects. There were many connections between Indian women and how violence impacts their health. Based on Sperlich’s discussion, trauma is defined as life-threatening events, which can be seen as there are many parts of India that still rely heavily on sexist gender roles where women are expected to be the nurturer and men have “real” jobs (Sperlich). Based on researching my health issue, anemia and malnutrition, I learned many Indian women are emotional abused by their husbands, which I believe is due to lack of equality among men and women. As a part of the gender roles, men ration more than their fair share of food leaving women with a lack in necessary nutrients, which causes complications during pregnancies. According to Survivor Moms, “But since stress can be so detrimental in pregnancy, having one’s needs met is important” (Seng, Sperlich, 2008) This is seen as Indian women aren’t giving the proper daily caloric intake, but also with the emotional side. Many of these women enter arranged marriages with men that haven’t met, so I can imagine it would be very difficult for them to want to have a child with a stranger. I couldn’t imagine a stranger meeting their needs, which also leads to health issues.
Reframing violence against women and trauma as health issues enforces the concept that medicine is used to lessen the issue but not resolve the cause behind the illness. For example, I previously mentioned Indian women are known for having anemia, which is caused by emotional abuse from their spouses. The Indian government is trying to resolve this problem by offering young girls a supplement known at millet, which is supposedly supposed to help them receive their daily nutrients. However, the government isn’t offering every female suffering from anemia only a handful of teenage girls. Plus, the problem isn’t the health issue it’s the reason the health issue is occurring. If the government wanted to resolve a majority of anemic women, they would target the men. They need to educate the men on how to properly treat women, so they can receive their daily nutrients. This enforces the concept of medicine in in the United States. For example, many doctors offer their patients birth control pills that are popular among their other patients to “cure” problems with their period. Instead, of looking at what might be causing bad cramps or other period symptoms, doctors assume everyone needs to be on birth control. Our society could do a better job resolving the problem by considering the causes instead of only caring about the treatment.
The World Health Organization states roughly 20% – 75% of women experience at least one emotionally abusive act from their significant others. This statistic doesn’t surprise me after researching the domestic violence that occurs in India. Typically, women are don’t leave these hostile situations because financial and childcare concerns as well as discouragement from family and friends (World Health Organization). While this might be true for the population, in my opinion India women don’t leave because they’re forced into arranged marriages. This gives men the opportunity to abuse women because they realize the women have to stay in the family or face serious consequences. The children, especially females, grow up seeing this abuse first-hand, which shows them the “proper” way they’re supposed to be treated. Indian cultures doesn’t define abuse as trauma, which challenges the concepts of biomedicine. Biomedicine looks at individual health needs, while India defines health issues/trauma based on the population. Therefore, these traditions continue to pass from generation to generation.
Gabriel, C. & Sperlich, M. Violence Against Women, Trauma, and Resiliance As Health Issues. [Powerpoint Slides]. Retrieved from http://anthropology.msu.edu/anp270-us19/lecture-videos/violence-against-women/.
Seng, J. & Sperlich, M. (2008). Survivor Moms: Women’s Stories of Birthing, Mothering, and Healing After Sexual Abuse. Motherbaby Press.
World Health Organization. (2012). Understand and Addressing Violence Against women: Intimate Partner Violence. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/open?id=1v3A9iFgtYMr27iQxastE2blCwzr72AUe.
Violence against women is at an all-time high, I agree; however, I do not agree with your point that men and women are treated with equal rights. While by law, this is correct, discrimination of women still occurs on a daily basis, especially in the workplace. Women generally have lower wages than men have, and are still prevented from doing some jobs. I also agree with your point about women who recover from being raped to have symptoms of PTSD, especially during childbirth. I am vehemently against rape, and while it occurs at a much higher frequency in other countries, it still exists in the US, affecting more women than men, despite the claim that women and men are equal. Equality in law is not the same as equality in real life. Pregnancy is a very painful time in a woman’s life, and only women are able to give birth, to bring new life. Yet, much of the world sees men as having the dominant gender. I believe that dominance should be eliminated with respect to gender, and that women and men should be treated equally. In the eyes of the law, and in the eyes of us all.
Domestic abuse and GBV is a major issue in India, and part of it is based in the patriarchial power structure, and it gets worse in areas where there is higher levels of poverty and less stability. I should mention that it is important to not generalize when it comes to India, there are areas and states where GBVand malnutrition are more prevalent. Dehli actually has a major problem with GBV and it’s famous for it as is the state of Maryana where my partner is from, but the state of Bengal tends to be much more egalitarian and you see fewer issues regarding GBV.