Definition of Domestic Violence - Aggressive or violent behaviour within a home, typically involving the violent abuse of a spouse or partner.
When you think of domestic violence, what comes to your mind? Do you picture a guy abusing the girl or the other way around? In society, gender inequality is visible in all areas. Both men and women receive all kinds of messages that men are much better than women. In this context, it becomes easier for a man to believe he has complete control over the women and take charge, even if it requires them to be violent. But we are not just talking about women being violently abuse by men. Men are just as likely to be victims too. For too long, domestic violence has been known to exclusively be an issue to women. While most attention is given to women who are abused by men, men are often overlooked victims of domestic violence. It is claimed that men are often treated as "second-class victims" and that many police forces do not take them seriously. "Male victims are almost invisible to the authorities such as the police, who rarely can be prevailed upon to take the man's side," said John Mays of Parity. Traditionally, a "real man" is known to be able to "control" his partner. Aside from the embarrassment over admitting abuse, abused men may feel that they are somehow less of a man and weak for "allowing" themselves to be abused. Mark Brooks of the Mankind Initiative, a helpline for victims, said: "It's a scandal that in 2010 all domestic violence victims are still not being treated equally. We reject the gendered analysis that so many in the domestic violence establishment still pursue, that the primary focus should be female victims. Each victim should be seen as an individual and helped accordingly." The following video explains what I am trying to explain: Yes, this video may be over dramatic but I believe this shows how society looks at the situation. When men gets hit by women, it's completely fine but when men hits the women, it appears to be unfair and an act of abuse. Questions to Consider:
Why do we laugh at men when they get abused/raped but when the role is reversed, it's a big deal?
Is society at fault here?
To all the guys, what would you do if you were physically abuse by a women? Would you report it? Please explain.
I am happy to see that there are more posts being completed on the blog everyday. You are definitely on the right track in terms of the topics you are addressing. Keep up the good work!
To make your posts even better I suggest you find a specific media text to analyse. That way the discussion can be steered towards critical analysis of one media text (and connections to other media texts). Make sense?
Islam =
Terrorism, Hate & Oppression.Ladies
and gentlemen, let’s first start with the obvious; that equation is completely
wrong. But, sadly, when the word Muslim or Islam shows up in front of us, those
are the first words that we have learned to associate with it. This is the
first and probably the biggest misconception about the religion, yet this
dominant discourse that is suggested throughout most social mediums. Have you
noticed lately, that the word terrorism is now suddenly the partner of Muslim?
They almost go hand in hand, according to our media, that is. Acts of racism, violence
and public massacres, when committed by a Muslim or a self-proclaimed Islamic
group, are acts of terrorism. Take those same acts, but done by say an African
American, a Caucasian, an Asian or a European person, who isn’t Muslim, and
suddenly the term is no longer terrorism, but rather it’s referred to as a “Hate
Crime” or “Act of Violence.” Let’s stop for a moment here and mention one of the more obvious
problems with this notion. It would be unfair to proclaim that all Muslims are
good people, because that’s simply not true. The same can be said and expected
from any religion/race found in this world. Not all followers of one faith are
good, they aren’t all bad either. But then why are Muslims always placed under
a negative light? Why isn’t terrorism used to describe the massacre of twenty
children at Sandy Hook Elementary or twelve federal employees in Virginia?
It may come as a
shock, but the word “Islam” means “peace.” It is the religion that first united
the otherwise known savage and barbaric Arabs, and taught them to be a civilized,
organized, well mannered group of people, known for their trade etiquette and
their strong sense of faith and belief in their peaceful religion. Islam is a
promoter of well mannered individuals who do not cheat, lie or betray anyone.
It is a promoter of equality and justice and condemns racism and oppression. One
of the first things that Islam did was to ban the notion of enslavement, and
called on equality among all individuals regardless of race. It teaches that
everyone is equal, and the only things that make one person better than
another, is his good deeds. What a surprise, right? In addition to this, Islam
was one of the first religions that supported women’s rights, including divorce,
the right to own land, and the right to work independently to make a decent
individual income or business. One of the more famous sayings by Prophet
Muhammad (A messenger of Allah) states that, “The most perfect amongst the
believers in faith is one who has the best manners and best of you are those
who are best to their wives.” This is really where things get interesting. By
now you’re probably thinking, well it doesn’t promote lying or stealing, it
doesn’t oppress its women and it teaches its followers peace and manners, where’s
the evil in that? It must be the part that talks about killing innocent people?
*Caution of Buzz Kill* Islam also teaches its followers that, “To save one life
is like saving all of humanity" (Quran 5:32).This might be one of the more shocking
teachings of Islam, right? All that talk about “jihad” and killing innocent
people seems to be the mainstream notion that consumes the ideas and
thoughts of society. What’s even more important to mention here is that Islam
doesn’t support these crimes. These monsters who commit these crimes against
innocent people, well they’re just monsters, they are criminals, they are
murderers – and we don’t respect them or in any way agree with what they do.
They call themselves “Muslims”, but they certainly do not follow Islam. These
people try to mold Islam, and reshape it to make it fit their needs. They pick
and choose from it what they want, and leave out and disregard what they don’t want.
Let’s be clear
here; hate crimes, violence, terrorism, whatever you want to call it, they’re
all the same thing, regardless of the religion of the person who does it. They
all leave innocent people dead, families torn apart and fear that never quite
leaves. But that is not Islam. I mean, I could go on here trying to point out
all of the many misconceptions that surround my amazing religion that is Islam.
But I don’t think that will change much. In the Quran (13:11) it states that, “Allah
will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in
themselves” which Gandhi echoed later when he said, “You must be the change you
wish to see in the world.” I think this is true.I think we need to change the way
we consume information from the media and change the way we want to understand
and view Islam. We shouldn’t so easily believe everything we hear on the news, on
the internet or social media sites. We need to learn to deconstruct different
ideas that are suggested in media texts, and question how these ideas were
formed and based on what background. I love my religion. Therefore, I’m
changing the equation. It is now amended to Islam ≠ terrorism, hate and
oppression.
Some questions
for thought:
1 1. Do you think the dominant discourse about Islam will ever
change?
2 2. What goes through your mind when you hear Muslim or Islam?
Has this blog changed your thoughts at all? (Be honest!)
3 3. After reading this blog, are there any topics in Islam that
you might want to learn more about?
4. Are there any features of Islam that you think or know are
similar in any other religion(s)?
The love song, a timeless ballad expressing a man's love for a woman. The most popular pieces of music in the last century have been about men expressing the love they feel for a woman. In those love songs, the women is either naive or she is a "bitch". Some of the most popular compositions (or abominations, depending on your taste) in the modern day and the past portray women as either naive, cunning gold diggers or as whores. The dominant disposition for women in the medium of music is very narrow. Two genres of music that seem to exclusively be about a man's love for a woman are Rock and Pop. The Beatles in 1963 were a pop band, who made songs targeted towards young girls. The song "She Loves You" is about a girl who has her heart broken but she is still in love with the man who broke her heart. It made the woman seem weak and helpless, it leeched off of the insecurities the young women of the time had and it was a hit. In the modern day pop artists are cashing in on this trend, we have One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer making songs that make the woman seem fragile. 'What makes you beautiful" a song with 200 million YouTube views (a large majority of them being teen girls) does just that. It tells 'her' she is insecure and she should not be insecure because the man singing the song is in love with her (or something along the lines of that cliche worn out bullshit). The biggest band of the 60's and the biggest 'band' now sing a song about an insecure girl and they sell millions of records, what an unanticipated surprise (sarcastically speaking of course). There are 2 more sides to this trinity, the second type of song that is extremely popular has the woman as a cunning 'bitch'. The woman is the reason for the man's misfortunes, and it is made apparent in the music of old blues legends. Cream, considered to be the greatest blues fusion suprgroup of all time covered many blues artists that came before them, their song 'Born Under a bad Sign' written by Booker T. Jones and Albert King talks about the many misfortunes of an unlucky man, but one verse that stands out is "You know, wine and women is all I crave.
/A big bad woman's gonna carry me to my grave". Which in other words means that a woman will be the death of him, the meaning of the verse is very broad but verses concerning a 'big bad women" are seen throughout the discography of many blues artists like Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Albert King, John Lee Hooker just to name a few. The hottest song of 2012 according to Billboard is "Somebody that i used to know" which has the woman breaking the poor man's heart. The woman in this is some a witch who leaves this poor helpless lad to a life of loneliness and depression, sound familiar? These songs are targeted towards teens dealing with relationship problems and they completely contradict the songs where women are weak. The third side of of the triangle is the song where women are portrayed as whores who are the man's to command, from legendary Canadian rock musicians The Guess Who to a disgrace to Canadian music Robin Thicke. The most popular songs of the two artists portray women as objects of a man's desire. The Guess Who's most popular song 'American Woman' has a literal and figurative meaning but lets take a look at the literal. The entire song tells American Woman to stay away because he doesn't want anything to do with them which seems reasonable enough until the verse "Coloured lights can hypnotize/Sparkle someone else's eyes". They are pretty much calling all American woman whores at this point in the song. The song is telling American woman to stay away because they are slutty, no more words are needed to prove my point. Robin Thicke is a bit less subtle with his masterful use of rhymes and poetry in the song 'Blurred Lines' with verses ranging from "What rhymes with hug me?" to "You the hottest bitch in this place" and the music video for the song has a bunch of naked emotionless girls standing around Robin. It makes women look like objects to a degree past offensive and yet the general audience for the music video is a split between men and women, the masses are not outraged but rather entertained by this and the critical response is positive. When men talked about women as objects of sex in the past they were subtle and had some humility but now with Robin Thicke's success it seems that society has evolved or rather devolved to a state where this is acceptable. If you look at the billboard top 100 or any top 100 songs list a majority of rock and pop songs will talk about women in these 3 scenarios. There aren't many female equivalents to non-love songs like Johnny B. Goode, Satisfaction, Bohemian Rhapsody, songs like Respect by Aretha Franklin are rare acceptations and they are even rarer now.
*Blurred Lines (Censored music video)
Questions you may wanna consider
1) Should musicians make songs about the same overdone themes of a man's love for a woman or should it be a form of progressive story telling?
2) Think about the last 10 songs you heard, how many of those portrayed women with those 3 stereotypes?
3) Is it acceptable to have rock and pop music be male dominated?
4) Rank the 3 (Women are weak, they're cunning, they're sex objects) in order from most political accuracy to the least and explain why?
5) Are you offended by Robin Thicke's blurred lines video?
What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word Islam or Muslim? I'm pretty sure it's not peace. The religion and the people itself are probably the most hated group ever discussed. It's not a surprise. Muslims are considered terrorists, oppressors, unhappy, trouble seekers, crazy lunatics, violence causers and so much more. Muslim men are seen as controlling, abusive, dictators, cruel and angry bearded men.Why is that? Well the media culture has brainwashed the society to see Muslims as the worlds enemy. Every incident that occurs, the first religion pointed to is...ISLAM! Simple answer, "Blame the Muslims". In the above interview Abby Martin asks Arsalan Iftikhar "Why is it that when white people go on a shooting spree, it's an aberration? It's considered that they're mentally ill. Yet when there is a Muslim with a bomb, that is just exclusively terrorism?" This is something to actually think about. Ever since 9/11 terrorism is a term linked to a religion. As long as the mass killing was done by a middle eastern looking man with a foreign last name, it's terrorism. Society has given the term "terrorism" a religion, colour, many characteristics, and some sort of language. Being a Muslim individual, I am very defensive on this issue because we are always labelled as the problem. How can you not when all the media ever illustrates about your religion is lies? The media has painted a picture labeling Muslims as monsters, Islam as evil, bullsh*t, wrong way of life. When this is definitely not the truth about Islam and it's people. Islam doesn't preach violence, hate or evil. Just because a group of suicide bombers use Islam as an excuse for their acts doesn't necessarily mean that they are of Muslim faith. Islam states you cannot kill anybody, steal, lie or do anything that is going to harm the well being of another person. These killers are not Muslims, they are simply terrorists. Media has created a dominant discourse where once the term Islam is mentioned first thing that comes to mind is "killers" or 9/11 terrorists. It's given people fear that even when you are travelling and you see a Muslim women in a head scarf or a Muslim man reading the Quran, everybody around them gets scared. What's wrong? They are just practicing their faith.
Question time:
1.Will society accept Islam as a religion of peace rather than a religion full of radical terrorists?
2. Has anyone witnessed a Muslim being questioned longer than anyone else at the airport?
3. How do you think these stereotypes prevent a Muslim from feeling equal in their community?
4. What do you think is the purpose of always blaming Muslims for mass killings? why isn't any other religion blamed?
I know most of you are, "Oh sh--t" when you read my
title. No worries, I just want to prove and outline something about what the
media tells us about black people. Firstly, I just want to say when was the
last time you seen a movie? Was there a Black guy who was the bad guy, thug
like and dangerous? I guess so. The media especially movies show that
Black-males particularly are dangerous and people that commit crimes.
When we watch films we consume what the directors what us to believe
about a certain gender and race. If you were to deconstruct the media and
really see what he/she is trying to prove you would be like, "omg".
The dominant discourse is reshaping the viewer’s mind on what especially
Black-Males are in reality and how they act. This really relates to the Hispanic
people. People think that many Hispanic people are from Mexico. They think they are
drug dealers, thugs and murders. Likewise, films have been picking onto both
race and gender for a long time.
Secondly, when you watched a movie did you
gain a specific perspective about how black males act through the lens of the
creator? I guess you probably did. Black-males are not thugs, gangsters,
robbers, crime committers and etc. These people are just like any other
ordinary person, gender, race, religion, ethnicity, and sexuality. I believe
that these films are really taking a toll on people and their opinions. Film media texts contain
beliefs and value message. We can't totally blame the director for implying
something about how black-males act. Probably he/she had a bad experience
involving a black-male. It's safe to say that individual felt that every
black-male is dangerous and thug like. Similarity, like I said before, you
can't take an individual case and start stereotyping. It's like saying every Muslim
is a terrorist, where in reality they aren't. Probably a Muslim individual
committed a crime but you can't take his story and apply it to everyone. All
media are constructions including films. Every director wants to imply his
story by tackling a certain gender and race. I will personally confess
that I was told to be scared of the Black's when I was young. It's not my
parents fault or societies fault. The person to blame is the people that create
the media that stereotype black-male individuals. Stop the stereotyping because
everyone is different.
Lastly, the video that I have attached at the top shows what really happens in reality. There are people that believe that all black-males are dangerous and they are not to be blamed. Moreover, media has painted that image into peoples mind. Each person interprets media text and messages differently. When they show black-males in media, people get the message that they are dangerous and should be on constant alert. For example, a white person will believe in what they see in the media, but in comparison to a black person they will disagree and disapprove. The same can apply when you see Hispanic stereotyping in the movies. You may believe in what you see but when a Hispanic sees it he/she will disagree with the media. The media has gone to far with stereotyping.
Discussion Questions:
What are some other races that are really being impacted negatively by the media stereotyping?
Has dominant discourse gone so far where breaking the stereotype is impossible?
What have your parents or society make you think about Black-Males? Has media gone to far with everything including stereotyping?
Loud, obnoxious,
rebellious, out of control, and up to no good… this is the dominant discourse attributed
to teenagers in today’s society. What is it about teenagers that make society
think such awful things about us? Not to say that there aren't teenagers out
there that are like that but the generalizations are very insulting. Just
because a teenager dyes his/her hair red, it doesn't mean they are angry and
rebelling, sometimes it can simply be because they like the color. How could
the rest of society judge us based on general assumptions? A stereotypical teenager would next to always
be connected to drug, alcohol and sex. Media today portray many teenagers as bullies, slackers and
‘druggies’. It can be very stressful; constantly hearing about how reckless and
dangerous teenagers are and it tends to have an effect on what they do. It’s
like someone telling a child to not eat the cookie placed in front of them, its
temptation. When it comes to teenagers and technology, the idea society has is
teens are always on their devices or social networking. Dr. Macpherson from the
University of Canberra Education Institute said, “No one would argue against
the fact that teenagers have welcomed digital technologies into their lives
with open arms. But it may be that the popular stereotype of teenagers as being
consumed by Facebook and computer games needs some rethinking.” In her article,
she talks about how teenagers are seen by society as opposed to who they
actually are. Generally what she said was a significant amount of teenagers
were surveyed and the results showed that teenagers are still doing today what
they did a decade ago. And it is very true; most of the teens I know don’t fit
into society’s stereotype of what teens are said to be caught up in. I know
many teens who enjoy reading, spending time with their families and a lot that
are dedicated to succeeding in school and moving on to further their education.
A poll showed that 90% of teenagers spend time with their families after
school, whereas a ‘shocking’ 61% reported being on social networking sites. To
simplify this; many people start acting like stereotypical teenagers, because
they feel that they need to in order to be a “normal” teenager. But that in
turn makes society cast out teenagers, when it is actually those same members
of society who created these stereotypes for teenagers to follow. Jin Kim said, “I don’t think this generation
is apathetic at all. If they are, then every other generation, including my own
is apathetic as well. I have kids right in front me right now that spend their
time and effort volunteering and being active in their community. “When I look
at them I don’t see lazy or inattentive kids. I see kids that are caring and
hard-working, not apathetic.” Stereotyping teenagers is no different from
stereotyping someone due to their ethnicity, religion, gender, etc.
Discussion Questions:
Are teenagers really as disturbed as we are portrayed
to be?
How is it, that society has come to the assumption that
teenagers are such a dreadful group of individuals?
