Women's Studies. Gender Violence - Essay Example

Gender Violence Gender abuses are widespread worldwide and there are several cases arising daily concerning theseissues particularly women and female child abuses. A woman’s place in the society has really been abused and this has prompted many organizations to come out ferociously to protect against this aboriginal act. Women abuse is very popular and it has become like an order of the day since in some societies even a boy child does not give an elderly woman the deserved respect equal to the one he would give to a male counterpart. In various societies, a woman is considered as a weaker success who cannot handle some tasks. Could problem have been the society we live in? Or is it our forefathers’ who initiated this? But then what are we doing to curb this kind of mistreatment? Can we all rise up and say no to gender violence? This piece of writing analyses the issue of gender violence. Undeniably, issues of gender violence are on the rise and something ought to be done about it. Some of the court decisions regarding these violence are actually not satisfying and I believe very punitive action will solve this matter to a very large extend. Talking about human rights, this is among the issues that should be addressed. A female child or a woman must enjoy her freedom once and for all without even an inch of denial. It is upsetting to hear that even celebrities who should lead these campaigns such as Chris brown are involved in this kind of character. This is certainly perturbing and it leaves someone wondering who should lead the campaign geared towards eradicating this kind of vice in the society if even the most respected people in the society are guilty of it. Who is in a good position to solve this abuse? I am convinced that we can all come together and treat all females equally by knowing that they are all human beings who deserve freedom and have rights given to them by their creatures. The following story is one of the sad stories of gender violence which is very rampant in military. Amanda Tenorio was a 28-year old divorced mother of two whose husband turned violent to shortly after marriage and later became a victim advocate for Army Community Services at Joint Base Henderson. Being a gender violence survivor, she was actually the best person to address this issue particularly after her husband’s unvarying thrashings caused her grave damages such as dislocated knees and brain injuries that eventually put her into unconsciousness. Tenorio together with other domestic violence survivors have strongly come out to condemn this act more so out of the military families that also seem to experience most of the violence. Tenorio feels that it is important to address this issue and she strongly believes that helping people through education is really vital especially the many victims that we come across almost on daily basis. The program which is aimed at eradicating and creating awareness amongst military families is put on all military installations. The program which focuses on treatment and interventions as well as trying to assist both the victim and the abuser has more than 800 clinical social workers and quick quickly responds to emergencies that would require either healthcare and shelter interventions. It is also revealed that some of the causes of violence are stressful situations such as financial difficulties, military trimming, or even handling of outcome of combat and the increase of this violence immensely worries the military leaders and domestic violence workers thus making the program to be focused on everyone in the military. Although war is very violent, it is not supposed to contribute to domestic violence and therefore it should change the attitude of the soldiers towards violence by making soldiers even better people. Loss of job can however bring stress such as how to complete mortgage or pay bills and this only requires counseling since violence can never solve this situation. The program that was started by Tenorio is therefore intended to train workers on how to handle stressful situations before it gets out of hand by safety assessment of the couples and teaching them on how to intervene in such kind of situations without causing chaos. The program admits that although there are always problems of communication in relationships, the best solution is to institute communication skills among couples and advice on avoidance of drugs or alcohol which may steer violence (Lisa Web). The advocacy programs are not intended to discipline the abusers but to take them home for a while so that the victims can be safe and this has really been significant since in fiscal year 2011 alone, the program supported 14, 237 people where others were just cancelled without filling the reports and all the cases were women being abused by civilian men. Tenorio who is an army contractor with a bachelor’s degree in social work and sociology blames her view about relationship emphasis on denial and rationalization as one of the causes of domestic violence. Tenorio admits that although it was a domestic violence she underwent she did not want to believe it since she thought that the relationship would get better one in future. She did not even want him to be locked up in prison because she perhaps sympathized with him but unfortunately the abuse continued relentlessly until a police officer pointed at her that the violence would not end until one of the couple dies. In fact she admitted that she did not want to imagine of a state where the husband was prisoned because of killing her even though she did not even attempt to use self-defense against him since this would stir him even more. Tenorio admitted that avoidance of self-defense would probably make his divorced husband to stop beating her quickly (Lisa Web). It is unfortunate that even after Tenorio had realized her husband’s suspicious characters such as jealousy and possessiveness, talking down about her while inflating him, and quick temper of minor issues she still stayed with the husband believing that perhaps he would change to a nice man. How I wish she would have noted these red flags earlier and take off before being driven away or serious beatings that finally made her go for divorce. Violence started three months in before it later developed into a more serious thing that Tenario and Robertson describe as classic domestic violence patterns of abuse but she still watched all these happening right before her eyes such as accusations and outright denial. Tenorio said her husband had too much control over her yet this is the core of abusive relationship since the victims usually feel isolated especially if there is no support around such as local family to help. Some of the abuses even took place in the public but most of the people around ignored and other people would still support the abuser such as the abuser’s mother who his charges thrown out may be because he was her son but Tenorio was not her daughter. I wish the abuser’s mother had the same feeling for her daughter in law just like she had for her son. Tenorio thought that it was not possible to leave her husband and that the right thing to do for her to stay safe was to stay on his good side. She felt that the police and the courts were not in the capacity of solving the issue because despite the abuser having several criminal issues, he was still left out particularly many times they separated (Lisa Web). Her patience and willing to change made her experience one f the worst abuses where her husband suppressed and blindfolded her in a chair in a motel room, poured gasoline on her and threatened to set her in a blaze if she upset him but ultimately released her after thorough beatings and bullying such as repeatedly smashing her head against the windshield and passenger window till they broke. After managing to escape into a store where the abuser stopped for gas where the cashier locked the door behind her and called the police while Tenorio left lying on the floor in a comma where she found later found herself in a hospital. What worries most was that Tenorio further stayed with her abuser for almost another one year while undergoing series of beatings until she later called a police who had him imprisoned for 15 years in Virginia prison while she was taken to a domestic violence shelter (Lisa Web). Domestic violence is number one cause of injury to women and they include rapes, smugglings and other incidents that women face yearly and this translates into a number of women being assaulted daily. Most women face severe forms of violence which even lead to killings either by family members or lovers and all these are largely contributed by shaky economy. Solving these issues of gender violence is however very technical since some do not even provide solution such as an arre4st of the breadwinner who is an abuser may leave a battered woman broke. The government, the police, social societies together with the individuals should come out clearly and stand strong against these issues. Works Cited Lisa, Daniel. Military Works to prevent Domestic Violence. American Forces Press Service, 19 Oct. 2012. Web. 27 June 2013. Read More