In sectin 41 of Seeing Ourselves, pages 248-253 the author Elaine Leeder talks about the reason why woman and children experience domestic violence in countries such as India, Japan, Vietnam, and Africa. In each of these countries there is one major thing in common – the abuse of women and children are seen as more of a norm and less of a problem. All of the women usually keep quiet about the abuse and there aren’t any government funded services that protect these women and children. There are not any laws that protect these women or children either, except Vietnam. Although there are laws that protect woman and children in Vietnam from abuse, the laws aren’t always enforced. Another thing that these countries have in common is that female children are abuse more often than male children because the males are thought to be more useful in the sense that they will one day take care of their parents while female children will someday leave for their husbands. In India, alcohol seems to be a main factor in abusive relationships. It’s stated that men in India often feel hopelessness because of their poverty so they drink to “forget their troubles”, and once they become drunk it becomes easier to take their frustrations out on their wives. There are boundaries and rules to beating your wife in India, and the other countries lack the restrictions. In Japan a possible solution to escaping the abuse is for the woman to divorce the man. Although the abuse may not stop because the man does not want to give up his wife, many woman still make this attempt. Oddly enough, there is not even a Japanese word for domestic abuse, instead they have adapted an English word. Due to domestic abuse, divorce rates in Vietnam have also increased. The main reasons why Vietnam husbands may abuse their wives are because the man has had a bad day at work so he takes his anger out on her, the believe that men are better than woman, and also men may allow their lover to live under the same roof as their wife.
In these countries the women that are abused never complain about the abuse because they are taught that these actions are normal. A child’s main teachers are their parents. If a child grows up seeing their father beat the mother that child is going to believe that the abuse is acceptable. Another reason why these woman stay quiet is because there aren’t any laws protecting them. I believe that if laws were made and strictly enforced then these woman would be more likely to speak out about their abuse.
When Leeder urges the readers to “suspend any ethnocentric value judgements” about these family violence I think she just means that she would like us to be able to better understand why these things happen and maybe even come up with solutions to help. I believe that we should at least reach out to these countries and maybe give them ideas on how to help themselves. It’s important for everyone to be aware and educated on domestic violence and ways to prevent abuse from happening. Sometimes other people don’t want help to their problems, which is why we should just leave them with the option of whether or not to use our resources. This would count as an attempt to help instead of forcing our help among people that may not want to change something about their culture. BY SAMANTHA
Someone who is ethnocentric considers his or her own culture to be superior to others. What Leeder was trying to say is that we should set our cultural biases aside and try to understand the problem of domestic abuse in these countries in the eyes of its people. I can understand that people in these countries are raised to think and act a certain way, and in a way don’t know any better, per se. For that I can give them an ounce of sensitivity. But in reality it is only the women who suffer. For the men it seems normal and harmless, but the victims must be dying inside for someone to reach out and help. It is a matter of human rights no matter how you look at it, and no amount of “tradition” or “culture” can convince me that beating women and children for the sake of beating them, and mutilating the bodies of little girls to make them “more beautiful and marriageable” is acceptable by any means. There needs to be a global intervention to educate these people (who may be highly educated but lack true understanding), strict punishments on abusers, and support systems for victims looking for a way out.
I agree with the above comment. I understand that people think it’s normal for their boyfriend or husband to beat them but it is just wrong. Just like it is wrong for a women to hit a man. No matter what the circumstances are women should report this. This is a terrible thing and it is growing bigger and bigger in the United States because no one is telling anyone else about it. They don’t think it is. News flash it is! There are all sorts of clinics and places that you can go for help. Nobody has to go through this alone! because there are alot more women out there expierencing the same things.
Nicole V