All of today’s readings dealt with violence against women, whether in the form of harassment, rape, or even the acceptance of a culture of rape. Susan Brownmiller sees rape as a function of the patriarchy and a way for men to exercise power over women. Power is clear motivator for violence against women and can be seen in Morgan, Walker, and Levy’s writing.
In Walker’s piece Why I Fight Back, she recalls a night where she was at her suburban high school alone, and a man with no pants on approached her. A similar flashing incident had happened to her sister, but this had been during the day and other people had been around. Walker recalls wanting to fight him, “but he overpowered me, ordered my obedience and received it. ‘I’d like to see you try’” (Walker, 127). Walker was left feeling afraid and weak. Walker was able to regain power and self-confidence through her self- defense class. She described self- defense knowledge as giving her an invisible protective layer against the outside world. Walker has never had to put her self-defense knowledge to use. When she was recently flashed again on a subway in Manhattan she did not fight him, but “instead I looked to his face and showed him that he had not succeeded in frightening or arousing me, whichever his purpose might have been” (Walker, 132). Walker took back power.
In Don’t Call Me a Survivor Morgan speaks about the most serious violence against women, rape. She begins by stating, “Please don’t call me a survivor. I really don’t feel like one. I still live my life as if I were raped yesterday. Essentially I was; it happens again every night in my dreams” (Morgan, 33). Morgan has been raped three times. The first was in a mall when she was thirteen by an old man. She remembers knowing clearly this wasn’t her fault. While I was happy to see she knew it was not her fault, it was upsetting to hear that her biggest mistake in this instance was telling her parents. One would expect parents to be concerned in this type of situation, but instead they yelled and grounded her. The second time Morgan was raped was at the age of sixteen when she was sexually active. This rape affected Morgan more than the previous because it was less clear-cut. The boy she had been on a date with had simply not stopped when she said no, but Morgan could not help questioning if she had said no clearly enough. The third time she recounts graphically, Morgan was gang raped at a party for six and a half hours. Morgan ends the piece with her first semester of college participating in take back the night. I have extreme respect for Morgan to be able to share her story.Through take back the night and through writing this piece Morgan was able to regain power in her own life that had been taken away by the numerous men who raped her.
Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs further shows the lack of power women have in today’s society when it comes to sex, sexuality, and violence against women. While Levy’s subjects of study have not been victims of harassment or rape they are victims of what she sees as an accepted rape culture, or a culture of having sex when "I guess I didn't really want to, but I told him I did" (Levy, 154). Levy first gets our attention with the extremes of rape culture, discussing rainbow parties and other sexual events taking place in middle schools and high schools. Girls being outwardly and overtly sexual even if they do not want to have sex have become a way for them to gain popularity and even fame. One example of this happened, “In the winter of 2004, an eight-grade girl at Horace Mann, one of the top private schools in New York City, made a digital recording of herself masturbating and simulating fellatio on a Swiffer mop” (Levy, 140). Even though I do not live in New York City I distinctly remember hearing about the Swiffer girl. While Swiffer girl is an extreme case, the culture behind Swiffer girl’s action exists in all schools. Sex and sexuality providing popularity can be seen well in the way girls dress in high school and middle school. Girls are always looking for a way to appeal to guys through their sexual clothing. One girl Levy interviews recalls a boy she liked wanting her to dress sexually. She had evidence, albeit inverted to support this idea. ‘John gets mad at me if I wear sweatpants,’ she said. ‘One time I went to Ecuador and I lost a lot of weight and he was, like disgusted by me. He got mad at me because I didn’t have an ass anymore. I was in tenth grade’” (Levy, 153). These girls give up their power to the boys in their lives because the boys are the only ones who have the power to affirm them. Anne states that girls want boys to be interested in them sexually even if the girl is not sexually interested in him because she wins some sort of competition among other girls. The men briefly bestow the “sluttiest” girl with power, but men still hold the power in Levy’s rape culture.
Levy’s article reminded me of an incident that occurred at Milton Academy, a boarding school in Boston, while I was in high school. I had some friends who went there at the time, but even if I didn’t it became such a big deal everyone eventually heard about it. A sophomore girl performed oral sex on five male students in a school locker room after hockey practice. The boys were all expelled and the older ones tried as adults for statutory rape. The girl became an instant celebrity and articles about the incident were even published in the Boston Globe. However, this girl was not signing autographs like Swiffer girl, she was ostracized. I wonder why her scenario turned out so differently from Levy’s other examples. I’m sure it had to do with the legal repercussions and expulsion from school for the boys involved in this incident. However, if there were no repercussion for the boys in this situation would the girl have become a celebrity like Swiffer girl? It is clear in this case as well as Levy’s other examples that the men have the power. However, I wish Levy would propose some way to combat this unequal holding of power like the other authors have recounted from their own experiences.
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