Intersectionality of Abuse

Today’s readings were riddled with pain and suffering. These stories provided differing situations and results among themselves, but the issue was quite clear. Women today, all over the world, are still being regularly victimized by the patriarchal systems in which they live. Religion and politics have shaped the ability of men to control women by threat of sexual violence and, as is clear in the readings, this dominance will not end until there are major changes made within the social system that perpetuates it. In “War Crimes” Helen Clarkson recounts the experiences of several women raped in the Congo. Already shocking enough, this article tells of one woman’s experience that I feel demonstrates one of the major problems with today’s social relationships. This woman, raped in the fields while working, says that “Suddenly we saw a group of armed men approaching us. My husband managed to flee but two men caught me. They raped me and at the same time they hit me on the back” (613). The woman’s rape is certainly a sad story, but the most disgusting part is that her husband deserted her, leaving her to be gang-raped by dangerous men. One of the major tenets of any patriarchal society is that a husband take care of his wife. Wedding vows commonly include a statement about lifelong caring and honor, especially on the part of the wife. But who in their right mind would leave the person they love to be violated while they ran to safety?
This issue has been documented among other cultures as well. In America husbands have been deserting their wives for years, as well as their children. While this isn’t out of the question for women either, it is much more prevalent among males. Dominance is a leverage point for men who know that their wives are not strong enough to fight, physically or mentally. In “Mapping the Margins”, Kimberly Crenshaw asserts that women of color in America, particularly Latino immigrants, are skipped over by many social outreach programs because of their inability to conform to certain restrictions and bylaws. On page 202 she asserts that, “many immigrant women are wholly dependent on their husbands as their link to the world outside their homes. Immigrant women are also vulnerable to spousal abuse because so many of them depend on their spouses for information regarding their legal status”. These women are forced to believe whatever their husband may say, because they may not know English. This language barrier allows their husbands the unique ability to lie about their status, and therefore control their lives. Non-English speaking women cannot call help lines, cannot reach out to their neighbors, and cannot request the assistance of clergy without an interpreter.
While this week’s readings exhibited very differing accounts of abuse they also formed a common bond around the issue of inequality of women in any society. Like I said before, these issues will never be resolved until the patriarchal societies in which they flourish are significantly changed.