I will be discussing how our culture has created domestic violence by examining this health issue with the feminist anthropological approach. Domestic violence can be defined as physical, sexual, emotional, economic, and psychological abuse. Physical abuse is the act of physical violence, sexual abuse is the act of rape, attempted rape, and forcing someone to participate in sexual acts, while emotional abuse includes ruining self-esteem and confidence. On the other hand, economic abuse is when the abuser controls the victim’s financial control, making them depend on the abuser, and finally, psychological abuse is when the abuser scares the victim through threats into depending on them (Powell & Smith 2011). Even though all of these forms are not always thought of as domestic violence they constitute the different aspects of it and that’s important to recognize. However, what each aspect does have in common is the act of violence, power, or use of coercion to get the victim to do what they want, which is defined as domestic violence (Powell & Smith 2011). The feminist theory will be used as the lens during this investigation because it asks the question “How does gender impact the situation and are there any inequalities present due to gender?”. Moreover, to answer this question I will focus on a history of our country and culture of the United States, how our culture continues to enforce domestic violence through our current culture and social norms, and specifically how feminist theory views and contributes to a change in our approach.
To start off, the military history and culture of violence has set the stage for domestic violence to become a part of our culture. The US is notorious for using military power to help establish diplomatic and political control over other countries (Corradi 2017). This can be seeing through examples of the colonies in which the US gained colonial power and controlled the colonies, or during the Cold War when we competed against the Soviet Union for the ability to destroy each other’s country. Now we have military bases in almost all of the places we’ve conquered to keep control and spend 54 percent of our budget on defense, while only 6 percent goes to education. (Corradi 2017). It is pretty clear where our priorities lay. Then, the presence of violent learned behaviors is passed down and help form our culture of violence (Marsella 2012). Furthermore, usually when these acts are being performed only a small amount of people benefit and that is not the women. These actions only seek to make other countries mad and create more enemies for ourselves. Likewise, it is not so far-fetched to think about how this reflects our culture. Our history shows the US throughout history taking power from other countries through economic, political, imperial, and cultural means. This reflects how we consider power and what we value (Corradi 2017). On the other hand, this completely contradicts the “American values” of peace. This pretty obviously shows how much of a hypocrite our country can be when it comes to doing what’s best for the country. In doing this we have made multiple enemies, weapons, and gained lots of power. We have also created a culture where gaining power and control over people is okay. In the US intimate partner violence accounts for 15 percent of all crime with 66 percent of the attacks coming from men that the women know. Additionally, 94 percent of murder suicide victims are female and as for the perpetrators committing this crime 90 percent are male (Firth 2014). In regard to sexual violence one in two women have experienced sexual victimization besides rape, one in five women have been raped in her lifetime, and of those who reported rape 51.1 percent was done by their partner (Firth 2014). Women in our culture expect violence, but the fear created is put in place by our culture and show that women do not think they are safe (Firth 2014). We have believed the men in power, questioned the women, and even blamed them for the abuse. We focus more on what the victim did rather than what the abuser was doing. Moreover, social determinants of poverty, race, marital status, and age have worsened the abuse. Of the women on welfare about 50 percent have experienced physical violence (Firth 2014). On top of that, the economic strain that the situation puts them in forces them to decide to stay with their abuser or have no money. As for race, one in three Native American women experience rape, with 86 percent being from white men on tribal grounds. They do this so they can’t be persecuted. Women of color experience 10-20 percent rates of IPV compared to white women (Firth 2014). When looking at marital status women who are single are more likely to be abused, or who are younger (Wilt & Olsen 1996). This probably comes from men taking advantage of the women’s situation. Sadly, the only people we can really blame when it comes to domestic violence is ourselves.
To continue, the continuity of domestic violence comes from our culture and social norms. Our way of approaching domestic violence has included ignoring the bigger problem of why it is happening and ignoring the victim, while blaming them for their abuse. This has worsened the problem by “re-victimizing” the victim (West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence 2015). Contrast, many people don’t even realize they are doing this because they have become so used to our culture that they can’t see it. Other examples of cultural norms that have worsened the problem is letting families hash out their affairs instead of getting involved, and excusing crimes of passion for romance. In like matter, cultural norms such as people living in rural areas staying independent of urban people and help from them, when people of color don’t trust white people or our justice system, or how elderly people don’t talk about certain things with others and find it hard to get help, making it hard for domestic violence to be recognized and helped (West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence 2015). Of course, these feelings of doubt come from the history and reputation we have made for ourselves and still reinforce. On a different but related note, football as well as many other sports has further reinforced our treatment of women and domestic violence. The cheerleaders promote women’s bodies as products for men as do the commercials shown during the games. As for the bigger picture, the games roots come from the Olympics and promote “…male aggression, physical domination, winning regardless of the cost, and the complete absence of the feminine.” and bleed into our culture (Newsom & Siddiquee 2013). Valuable players are further exempt from most prosecution and are believed over the victim because of the value they bring the team. This only goes to show young women that they are not valued and that their opinion really doesn’t matter. The football culture is also linked to gun culture with three in four players owning guns, while some have used them on their girlfriends (Newsom & Siddique 2013). The mistreatment of women has also been prevalent in modern hip-hop culture. Women are portrayed through sexism and have not been included in making music for this genre, if they have, they have to go along with the culture (Larsen 2006). The culture serves to continue racism too by playing into the stereotypes of African Americans. Through all of these social norms and normal culture we keep reinforcing to men that mistreatment of women is normal, and men don’t have to be held accountable, while the women is blamed.
Lastly, feminist theory views the health issue of domestic violence and the culture surrounding it more critically than most people do. Feminist theory seeks to investigate what inequalities are present due to gender. This came from the continuous subordination of women and lack of representation in anthropology. They now look to research what identity is (Armbruster 2000). When they did this, they deconstructed what it was to be a woman by looking at gender as culturally specific. Gender inequality comes from ideology and structure in society. They point out that allowing men to dominate a multitude of factors gives them the opportunity to embody male domination (Yondanis 2004). They use fear from women in order to fully control them. This fear comes from sexual violence that men create, thus restricting women’s freedom allowing for men to more fully gain control. Comparatively, the US has no more than 50 percent of women making up the government and only one third to 70 percent representation in professional fields (Yondanis 2004). This is important because the higher the status of the women the less likely they are to experience domestic violence. In reality, as men claim power spots and push women out, they are only seeking control and not allowing them any, further increasing their power. Despite this control, women have been working hard to change this view point for a while. They have accomplished the persecution of domestic violence from private to public (Houston 2014). This was done by changing this health issue into a crime. In order to do this, they had to get people to realize that domestic violence was not happening because the couple had different personalities and that this caused victim blaming. In like manner, they had to convince people that victim blaming could be really harmful to the woman and the violence was not their fault. Once people started to realize that the violence was becoming an issue feminist had to convince people that this was an issue because of inequality and if we didn’t think about it like that then the assumptions made would be unhelpful. They had to convince the public too that rape was being used as a tool of fear to control women (Houston 2014). Men were saying that rape was not real because all women secretly wanted to have sex anyways or that it could not happen to your wife because you are married. Feminists then, could not figure out why women would not leave the men. They figured it must have been because she needed to rely on him in some way. Currently, feminists consider domestic violence to be from structural stress, psychology, and interrelational dynamics (Houston 2014). I chose this theory to help show how our culture has created and continued domestic violence. I think this theory is valuable because it helps you see a different perspective than the mainstream. It allows for more insight into why we should care about this issue and how we can help.
To conclude, I discussed how our culture has created domestic violence by examining the health issue with the feminist anthropological theory. I considered through our history and current culture how we have formed these ideas and have they have become harmful. This came from the culture of violence, which originated with our country’s history of conquering and domination. This domination has bled into our culture through social norms and ideas. You can see this is in sports and hip-hop. By making these harmful ideas into social norms we have only encouraged domestic violence and have almost stomped out the women’s voice. At the same time, feminists have been working hard to make sure that people view this health issue as a problem. They have done this by changing our original ideas on the subject by examining them critically and backing up their reasoning with evidence. This progress has helped show women in a more empowered light and given them some of their power back. I think it is important to do this in order to continue to change the perspective. Finally, I picked this theory to examine domestic violence because I believe it encompassed the full scope of the issue and helps give people a different perspective to think about. I think women and society has made some big strides on the issue in order to continue to help women we need to keep examining this critically.
1. Powell, Pamella, and Marilyn Smith. (2011). Domestic Violence: An Overview. http://www.unce.unr.edu/publications/files/cy/2011/fs1176.pdf
2. Corradi, Anna. (May 22 2017). The American Culture of Violence. http://www.brownpoliticalreview.org/2017/05/american-culture-violence/
3. Marsella, Anthony, (Nov 09 2012). The United States of America: A “Culture of Violence”. https://www.transcend.org/tms/2012/11/the-united-states-of-america-a-culture-of-violence/
4. Firth, Perry. (Oct 17 2014). Violence Against Women: So Common, It’s Cultural. http://firesteelwa.org/2014/10/violence-against-women-so-common-its-cultural/
5. Wilt, Susan, and Sarah Olson. (1996). Prevalence of Domestic Violence in the United States. Pgs.77-82.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.464.8702&rep=rep1&type=pdf
6. West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence. (2015). Relationship Violence and Culture. https://www.marshall.edu/wcenter/domestic-violence/relationship-violence-and-culture/
7. Newsom, Jennifer and Imran Siddiquee. (Apr 14 2013). American Football Culture and Sexual Violence. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/american-football-culture_b_2665074?guccounter=1
8. Larson, Jane. (2006). Sexism and misogyny in American hip-hop culture. https://www.duo.uio.no/handle/10852/25447
9. Armbruster, Heidi. (2000). Feminist Theories and Anthropology. Pgs. 1-37. https://lit.polylog.org/2/eah-en.htm
10. Yodanis, Carrie. (June 2004). Gender Inequality, Violence Against Women, and Fear: A Cross-National Test of the Feminist Theory of Violence Against Women. Pgs. 1-21. https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/0886260504263868
11. Houston Claire. (2014). How Feminist Theory Became Las: Tracing the Path to Mandatory Criminal Intervention in Domestic Violence Cases. Pgs. 217-272.