Author Archives: Roy

Domestic Violence

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India is rife with domestic violence. Relatively minor wife battering is commonplace, and Indian men and women alike readily agree it is justifiable. Why does it occur? There are several reasons. A man who beats his wife will not be objurgated if he is intoxicated. Wife battering will also occur as a dowry demand. These women are held as prisoners in an attempt extort money from their families. Also, women who are sterilized (sterilization is a common form of birth control in India) are more likely to be beaten. After all, there are basically no repercussions for hitting a woman who can’t bear you a son, right? Wives who are adulterous or disobedient in general will garner beatings, as well. The only time there are consequences for wife battering are if the beating exceptionally violent, or if none of the above conditions are met.

Child abuse is another problem in India. You would think that modernization would lead to a decrease in domestic violence, but that has not been the case. This is apparent in that people of all classes, NOT just lower class people, admit to corporal punishment of their children—56.9% of parents, in fact. Industrialization has hugely increased intrafamilial stress, which contributes to this violence. Young girls are especially victimized, because Indian culture labels them as nearly worthless compared to boys. Modernization contributes to this too: feticide is used to kill off baby girls in utero. This could not happen without modernization because how would people know the sex of their fetus without ultrasound?

Vietnam is another arena of domestic violence. The beautiful Vietnamese scenery belies what is going on in the homes of the citizens. In fact, there is more than one type of domestic violence here: invisible violence and visible violence. The invisible violence is not physical violence. Instead, the men of society dominate the women through terror and intimidation. This continues even though Vietnamese women are far more productive than men; the women earn more money AND do the housework. Visible violence—which leads to many divorces—is more akin to the wife battering in India. Dissatisfied, poor men take out their aggravations on their defenseless spouses. The problem is also spurred by the adherence to old Confucian beliefs, including that everything is a hierarchy—and in family life, men are higher up this hierarchy. In Vietnamese visible violence, we also see some of the same justifications that we saw in Indian wife battering, such as alcohol and unfaithfulness (on the part of the wife).

By Roy

Desire for Thinness— What causes eating disorders?

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The three existing theoretical models used to explain eating disorders are the biomedical model, psychological model, and a third model, which looks at them in a more sociological sense. The biomedical model explains disorders as purely physiological, and does not pay attention to possible sociological causes. The psychological asserts that eating disorders are caused by a wider range of issues, such as some cultural ones, but is still fairly narrow in scope. Feminists have given us a third model for study, which takes into account many cultural, historical, and such sociological factors. The key point of this model, though, is the claim that eating disorders are specifically related to gender, NOT to race.

Sociologists first began looking into the connection between sexual abuse and eating problems in the 1980s. There certainly IS a connection: studies indicate that between one and two thirds of women with eating disorders have been abused. Abuse often results in binge eating; food is the most readily available “drug” to numb the horror of abuse. Sexual abuse also sometimes results in excessive dieting and bulimia.  This happens when women believe that their (over)weight is the cause of the abuse.  However, this can eventually also lead to binge eating and oscillating weight.

Racism and classism are also sometimes causes of eating disorders. Racial minorities may see being thin as the only way to become prettier: If white girls are thin, then it becomes essential for racial minorities to be thin as well. Classism makes things even more confusing. For lower working class people, chubbier children will be seen as well fed and healthier. But in higher class families, people are expected to have a certain degree of thinness. If one’s class fluctuates –and this applies mainly to racial minorities—then one is more likely to develop eating disorders, as one tries to compensate for the out-of-whack expectations that change as one’s class does.

BY ROY

PS: A special “thank you” is due to Professor Adams for sorting out all my technical issues. Your help was most appreciated!