Violence Against Women

Patriarchy is apart of and it has continuously, routinely played a huge role in how is shapes our society.  Patriarchy is the idea that the social system favors masculinity.  Men are supposed to dominate women.  While women are viewed as weak and submissive, men are powerful and the breadwinner.  Women are not paid at an equal rate of men and the wage gap gets lower when you add race and gender into the pot.  

From these ideas comes gender roles.  Society gives permission for women to "act" like a man or have more masculinity, but a man cannot embrace his femininity.  Our society is very confined to set standards and when someone chooses to drift from these roles, they are shunned, looked down on, insulated, assaulted, harassed.  This is just to name a few things people face day to day for expressing and choosing to be open about themselves.  From a young age we are taught what a boy and a girl should do, act, say, play with, etc.  This is society boxing people into categories.  

For example, if a man is expressing his femininity by painting his nails or caring too much about hygiene, he is labeled "gay" and if a women is expressing her masculinity by wearing men clothing and cutting her hair short, she is labeled "lesbian."  Now these are just two examples but there are countless more.  

Our society has to put people into boxes and categories in order for it to make sense.  And "it" meaning the concept of people not conforming to the normal, mainstream way gender roles have been for decades. 

Victimization ties in with patriarchy.  Like I stated before, men are seen as powerful and women are seen as weak.  When these ideas are apart of a society that means women have a higher chance of being taken advantage of, assaulted, harassed, stalked, killed, and again this is just to name a few ways women become the victim.  Most of these crimes against women happen at the hands of men due to the societal need for power.  When there is a person in a role of power, its a privilege.  Sometimes these powerful men take advantage of this power and victimize others.