Author Archives: jessica rice

Domerstic Violence

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According to Elaine leeder who wrote “Domestic Violence: A Cross- Cultural View” believes that wife battering is a prevalent and normal family dynamic in India. She say that because in India wife battering is an everyday affair that it is not considered a problem. Their justifications for the beatings are said to be because families are unable to keep up with inflation. Causing the feeling of hopelessness leading to drunken fits of rage. In rural India abuse is tolerated for dowry problems, a wife’s infidelity, her neglect of household duties, or her disobedience to her husbands dictates.

As a result of industrialization and modernization middle- class families have experienced stress causing an increase in child abuse. With the competition and upward mobility, the families having less support to raise children .  There is also a pattern  of corporal punishment in raising children. The children are brought up to obey their parents, and if they disobey they are disciplined.

In Vietnam there is two different kinds of violence, Invisible and Visible violence. Invisible violence is not physical instead it is when men use intimidation and fear to control the women. One example of an invisible violence that they use is the Vietnam women for the most part work at labor markets all day then come home and do about five to six more hours of house work while their husbands act like kings. Visible violence is when the men physically abuse their women. Visible violence can even sometimes cause death. One study found that in Vietnam 17.5% of deaths in 1992 were caused by family violence.

　

JESSICA

“INVISIBLE PRIVILEGES”

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Privileges are invisible to most people like upper class and much of middle class because we live with there privileges everyday. Most of the time they take it for granted. Take electricity, it is a normal thing for most people to have electricity but people in the lower class aren’t always that lucky. They KNOW that to be a privilege because there may be that day where they don’t have it and have to learn to live without. Like when they describe Jewel’s home in the reading. They said it was dark and only had one light. That may be because the parents know that they need to use it sparingly. Cause they can’t afford to light up the whole house like Andreas home. So they are conserving energy. But with the way the economy is today I believe that most people are feeling the fear of losing these “invisible” privileges.

I believe that Andrea was so uncomfortable in Jewel’s home is because it was a culture shock for her. You take a little girl who is used to one way of living and put her into a totally different situation. Where she and her mother where the only white people there and her home is dark and falling apart. She was so scared and didn’t want to be there again. Which unfortunately ended their friendship.

In a perfect world I would love to believe that people can over come this social difference. But the truth of the matter is there is such a cultural difference between class’s. Such as, much of the upper class enjoy things like operas, fancy restaurants and expensive things cause they can afford it. But then you have the lower class that can’t afford the same pleasures. So they have to find other non expensive things to do. Which can really put a gap in friendships because you are doing different things, hangout with different people that share the same things. When you take the two girls in the reading they enjoyed do the same things together but there home life was so different. Andrea was so scared she ended their friendship probable in fear that she might have to go back to her home again.

Jessica

Obsessions with Thinness

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There are three theoretical models that is used to explain and treat eating disorders. First there is the Biomedical model that uses scientific research to pursue the idea that physiological is the cause for eating disorders. In their research they felt medical treatment is the best way to go to treat peoples eating disorders. In doing so many women found it to be very overwhelming.

The second model which is called Psychological model believes eating disorders have to do with many different disorders that are brought on by biological, psychological, and culture issues. They believe the best treatment for this model is therapeutic treatment.

 Then lastly there is the feminist model that says eating problems are based on gender and that women are the primary target. This model says that thinness and beauty among women are sought out culturally, socially, and economically. With this makes them sustainable to dieting, weight loss and subsequent weight gain.

 All these model differ in what they believe is the cause and treatment. But what was noticed is that all these models neglect race, sexual orientation, and working class women.

 It is believed that between one third to two thirds of women that have been sexually abused have a eating disorder. Some of the women that they interviewed in chapter 7 Cultural obsession with thinness: African American, Latina, and white women. By Becky W Thompson say that eating helps them hide the pain or momentarily forget about there trauma that they have experienced. Others say extreme dieting and bulimia was their way of coping because they feel that their perpetrator found the extra weight to be attractive. So to feel safe that their perpetrators will no longer find them attractive because they have got rid of what attracted them in the first place.

 Racism and class standing also effect in the way of causing eating disorders, For instance with race, African and Latina women are stereotyped and are thought that fat is more expected and attractive. Once their class status changed from working class to middle class the way you were expected to look changed. In the working class if you were skinny, you were thought to be sickly and that your mother was a bad or insufficient cook. But once you enter middle class fat was frowned upon and skinniness was seen as classy.

 Carol Yager – She was born in 1960 and had a pretty disturbing childhood. Before she died in 1994 she declared in an interview that the reason why she developed an eating disorder early in her childhood is because she was sexually abused by a close family member. At her peak, Yager was estimated to have weighed about 1600 pounds, which makes her the heaviest person ever recorded in human history.                                                 

                                                            

The link below tells a womens personal story on how sexually abuse was the cause for her eating disorder. Very sad!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZnI1HQg2hM

 

Jessica