Gender Inequality and Sexual Assault: Why Both Sexes Are To Blame :: Womens Studies

Gender Inequality and Sexual Assault Why Both Sexes are To BlameIn a recent sociology class, Sandra Bem was handstioned. Bem is a sociologist who focuses on sexual practice. However, strange most sociologists, Bem chooses not to focus on the differences between males and females, but quite an on the similarities. She says that polarized gender socialization, the way that we assign masculine or maidenlike characteristics to things such as walking and talking to make males and females appear to be opposite, keeps us from realizing that the sexes are more alike than they are different. Men and women shake off the same needs for food, clothing, shelter, affection, belonging, and so forth. So, what are we doing when we divide human beings by gender and exaggerate differences through social constructs that are not regular pertinent? We are creating excuses for the problems we have by blaming gender differences. By inveterate to dwell on the social differences between men and wom en in deliver day American society, we are merely propelling the problem of gender inequality and giving it a reason to remain, rather than eliminating it. Yet, in the 1990s and continuing now in the twenty-first century, both the men and women of American society are impeding feminism because their shared responsibility is overlooked, oddly in cases of rape and other sexual assaults.It is clear when we look at a topic like rape that both sexes can be at fault, not only for the action at hand, but for the deadening of equality in gender issues caused by that action. It is a well-established fact that men do not rape for sex, but rather for power. Men already have power just because they are men living in a male dominated society. Why on earth would a member of this dominant group feel the need to physically ready over another persons body in lay to feel powerful? Are American men so customary to having their way that they feel they can do as they wish eternally and without thi nking about the consequences? Or, are men who rape merely retaliating as a means of retrieving the power they have been losing since day one of the womens movement? I am not at all expression that because women want to be treated fairly in society that they are then putting themselves as a whole at risk of exposure from the attacks of jealous men. Afterall, one never hears about women raping men even though women are trying to increase their amount of power.