Breaking the Objectification Cycle: Eliminating Violence Against Women

Introduction

“There is nothing more rare, nor more beautiful, than a woman being unapologetically herself; comfortable in her perfect imperfection. To me, that is the true essence of beauty.” (Maraboli, 2013) With this in mind a woman should be able to express herself when she interacting in society without feeling like a target of different types of violence because of her body being objectified. This quote was also chosen as it expresses how a women should feel towards herself body without society judging her. Approximately 15 million women between the ages of 15 to 19 worldwide has been a victim of sexual violence or sexual acts (Swift and Gould, 2019). This statistics is alarming because women globally are in situations that may be life threatening. However, it may be curious as why women and girls are being continuously objectified or over hyper sexualized in society to become cases of violence or the main excused for violence exclaimed by men. Some men uses this opportunity to blame their violent behavior on the basis that a woman had asked for because her body has be over sexualized to becoming an object. To prevent or reduce this issue in society there should be interventions to help stop violence against women. To resolve this there are interventions that are necessary to eliminate perceptions of women as sex objects that are used by men to justify their own violence. These interventions are geared towards preventing more cases of violence against women as well as how to move forward for women who have become victims. These interventions will be focused on the perpetrators or victims that are involved in the violence.

Objectification of Women: Fueling Violence

The notion of women as sex objects can be explained as a woman’s body or specific body parts that are objectified for a man’s sexual desire rather than the woman being seen as a person (Szymanski et al, 2011). As a result of this men used this excuse to mistreat women because they are only seen as an object. According to Wegner et al (2015) perpetrators considered rapist were asked how would they justify the reason behind the sexual violence towards women they have raped, 51% comments said that they only seen women as purely objects (Wegner et al , 2015). These men disregard that the women that become victims of their actions as not a person who respect should be given. Henceforth, this notion is needed to be address to reduce cases of violence against women.

The norm that women are seen as sex objects by society has been an issue for centuries and as results these same women and girls are the ones that are punished for their behaviors. The State and members of the civil society used violence such as rape, sexual torture, honor, killings and beatings to punish and control women who a have transgressed cultural norms of sexual conducts (Tyndale and Smylie, 2008). In this instance men are not seen as the perpetrators but a woman asked for it therefore she must be punish to learn how to conduct herself. For that reason when have been belittled and men considered having dominance over women.

The feminist perspective agreed that objectification is seeing or treating a woman merely as an object. Views of this issue are described as problematic issue by feminist theory in the discussion of pornography. Feminists who stand for anti-pornography such as Andrea Dworkin, Catherine Mackinnon with an influence of Immanuel Kant argued that the consumption of pornography by men is responsible for women being objectified (Papadaki, 2010). Papadaki (2010) continue to state that Mackinnon described that pornography promotes women being sexual objects who get enjoyment from being physically hurt in ways of being tortured, dehumanized or rape. This idealization of how women are portrayed as sex objects contributed to the men’s violence against women. Pornography gives men pictures and videos of fantasies that make them intrigued. Therefore, some of these men believe that should act on this.

The different types of violence that are faced by women and girls in society include sexual assaults, sex trafficking, physical sexual abused and sexual harassment to name a few. Each can be described differently as many women and girls do not face the same type of violence in their daily lives. Women response to being considered as sexual objects can be described as stirring anger, disgust and shame (Shepherd, 2019). With this reaction some women try to defend themselves and therefore fall victims of these violence caused by men. The battle between a woman and a man poses to be a threat to the women because women as viewed a weaker sex. Due to this in some cases the man would’ve been stronger to conflict violence.

A particular target group that is a possible victim of sexual objectification and violence cause by men are persons considered sex workers and take part in sex tourism. Sex workers are adults involved in the sex industry that uses his or her body for sexual services in return for money or other goods ( Open foundation society, n.d.). Globally there have been reports of sex workers victimized by violence caused by men. Meanwhile feminist have stated that pornography is a cause of violence against women, , sex worker is considered any form of labour. Connelly (2018) stated that reports in the UK has shown that sex workers are at high risk of violence against women and that when cases are reported to the police it becomes ignored ( Connelly et al, 2018). This brings back to the notion that because women as seen as sex objects the men take a different stance as to why they think it t rectifiable to condemn violence against women.

Interventions to Address Violence Against Women

The first recommended interventions that can eliminate the perceptions of women as sex objects that men use to cover up their masculine violent behavior can be resolved from the root. The household where both men, women, boys and girls interact while living together can be considered a possible root of violence against women. In a domestic household, there may be a marriage or common law relationship between a male and a female. The reason why violence begins here is because males are usually the hold the power in the relationship where sex is demanded from a woman (Longman-Mills, 2012). This behavioral pattern may have been witness to younger generations and therefore is passed on. Moreover, these types of violence against women experienced by children in the household has an effect on them as a child’s behavior and emotions will later cause them to change how they think of themselves and their families (Cunningham and Baker 2007). Cunningham and baker also stated that one such behavior change is disrespect to women.

According to the World Health organization (2017), 35% of women worldwide are victims of violence against men. These men are intimate partners that live among these women who have been violently abused. The organization continue to stated that the men who commit violent behavior have low education, a history of childhood mistreatment, witness of the violence seen against their mothers and a sense of entitlement of women (WHO, 2017). With the data the refocused to help eliminate this issue of violence against women seen as sex objects by men at a younger stage in the household.

As a result of this issue in the household another possible intervention that can use it to address how women and girls are treated is by promoting gender based equality and respect towards women. This will help to eliminate women seen as sex objects and becoming victim of violence by men. Boys and men will begin to appreciate and respect their mothers, sisters or other female relatives beginning in the home. Therefore when it is time to begin new families in the next generation the rate of any form of abused against women will be reduced as these men would have learnt how women should be treated in a home.

Secondly, another recommended intervention to eliminate the perceptions of women seen as sex objects and changed men using this as the reason behind the violence is by creating projects geared to working with both men and boys. These programs will provide knowledge of the daily violence against women and the consequences that guaranteed by the law. With this in mind the goal should be aimed to help change the attitudes of men and boys as well as their behavior in society. Notably one such organization that is known for mentoring men and young boys is the Mentor in Violence Prevention (MVP). This organization was founded in 1933 with goal to change the social norms of gender violence, sexual harassment and bullying (mvpstrat, n.d.). With an increase number of organization with objective similar to MVP many communities will have a decrease rate of violence against women.

In addition to other programs mentioned, a similar intervention that can be considered useful is educating members of society of the issue at hand. The wider society should know the facts that men that cause violence against women are not strangers but someone that the victim knows. The awareness of this issue will allow women and girls to become more vigilant when interacting with men. Statistically 45% of women who were sexual violated were by perpetrators that they knew and of that percentage 29% were namely husbands or ex-husbands and boyfriends or ex boyfriends (Bachman and Saltzman, 1995). With this knowledge known by women in society they should be able to identify the signs of sexual abuse as a form of prevention strategies. On the other hand, some victimized women become afraid of what their partners might do it report is filled against them. Additionally there are other women that are dependent on their partner for source of food and income and would try to convince in their minds that the incident was just a onetime thing or how their partners express love.

To continue with more interventions to reduce women seen as sex objects to justify men’s violence is having advocacy groups for women. These groups will help promote their stories of victims of women who have been sexually objectified to becoming victim’s sexual violence caused by men. This will be beneficial as it empowers women to stand up for women’s right that they are more than just objects that are forced to accept sexual abuse. The healing process may be more comforting as women will feel less alone as other women have experience similar violence caused by men. On a personal level women should also be encouraged to visit psychiatrist or counselor to express how they feel and how to more forwards as a victims of violence caused by men.

In this empowerment journey the idea of how a woman can defend herself becomes a possibility. Classes full of women are taught how to physically fight back when caught in the situation of men who begins to act in a violent way. These classes motivate women that they are no longer just a weaker sex that she be forced to accept any type of abuse. When more men start to realize that women are learning more ways to defend themselves they will likely heed in caution. These advocacy groups will be beneficial not only to women but men who believe that women should have the opportunity to be respected.

Each intervention are described different as it is either geared towards helping the victims or the perpetrators. However, the perpetrators are the ones that should be the main focus as for many cases they are the ones that caused the violent crimes. Another intervention that can be useful in eliminating the issue of women being seen as sex objects that are used to justify how men violently behave is strengthening the legal system. This will be valuable as police systems ensure accountability and justice for women to be relief that the violence against them will be addressed (Kilmarten, 2007).

The most crucial recommended intervention to resolve this issue is that men and boys should be more educated. Hearn (1999) agreed that educating the violence against men begins with men’s relationship with women. He continued to state that men should be able to acknowledge and listen to women’s experiences when in either short or long term relationships (Hearn, 1999). It is important to realize that the communication of men when interacting with women is being able to recognize the meaning of no that it is not a form of consent. If a woman refused they should respect a woman’s wishes and cease from what they are doing. A greater understanding that women are allowed to refused any sexual favors for many reasons especially if she very uncomfortable in the present situations. Men who objectified women believe that her body is basically asking to be sexualized. This intervention also promotes the idea of self control for men. Mastering how to be focused on the importance on being respectful to a woman’s feelings compared to constantly visualizing women in a sexual way that may complete their fantasies.

With this intervention of educating men and boys there have been proven cases that made achievements after working with random chosen groups. In 2011a study was conducted using this intervention. The results have shown that changes with the behavior of men and boys towards rape and other violence against women have reduced (Flood, 2015). These trail cases brings hope that it is indeed possible for other men to learn from education about violence against women. The group of men that have participated in reducing the violence against women would be exemplars for other men and boys in their society. Moreover, as exemplars they will begin to encourage the need for women and girls to feel safer because they are not being seen as sex objects.

Conclusion

Women bodies being objectified have been as issue for men trying to justify their own violence. Sexual objectification describes women’s bodies as just an object to sooth men sexual needs. Violence against women caused can be described in different forms experienced by women. Sex workers are a particularly are also included in the common victims of sexual objectification and subject to violence caused by men. Feminist debate that pornography is the main responsibility of men objectifying women’s body. This later affects women’s emotion to feeling angry disgusted ad often feel ashamed. Therefore to reduce this issue interventions are recommended to eliminate the perception that women are sexual objects which is used by men t justify their violent behavior to women. The interventions recommended are focused on either the victims in these case as women or the perpetrators as men. These intervention included targeting this issue from the home, creating mentoring groups for boys and men, educating our men and advocacy groups for women o express themselves for other victims Each other which are geared with the common interest of women being protected by wrong actions taken by men and for women to freely accept themselves in their own body.

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