Violence Against Women of Color

According to Kimberlé Crenshaw, there are several ways that most women of color who are abused are excluded from services for abused women. First, Crenshaw talks about how after colored women are abused, cultural barriers stop them from reporting the violence or leaving the situation all together. Women of color are more often wholly dependent on their husbands or more likely to live with an extended family where there is little privacy to call someone to report the abuse. Women of color are also more reluctant to call the police because police forces are known to be hostile toward them. Crenshaw also discusses how some domestic violence activists were afraid to release data showing the large amount of domestic violence cases in minority communities because they feared it would undermine the efforts of the police to address domestic violence as a serious issue, as they would only see it as a minority problem. Data about violence in minority communities is also suppressed in the name of antiracism: people fear that calling minorities more violent makes them a racist, and so no one talks about it. Finally, Crenshaw then talks about how even when women do report abuse to police or some other support system, they are likely to face barriers to actually getting help. First, women who are not English speakers face a huge barrier: they are denied access to services for abused women based solely on the fact that they cannot speak English. These services want the women to be able to speak for themselves because if do not, it further victimizes them. These services are also very reluctant to make any changes to their policies. Also, services such as the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence are located in areas where there are few people of color. The main problem here is that the intersectional differences of women of color are ignored when it comes to violence against women.

Women of color do not only face exclusion from services for abused women. There are several services for women, such as health care and reproductive rights, that women of color are sometimes excluded from. Any service that requires a woman to speak English or requires a significant amount of money can sometimes be discriminatory towards women of color, since many of these women cannot speak English and are more likely to live in poverty than white women.

There are several changes that could be made to address the issue of violence against women of color. First, Crenshaw mentions that one of the problems is that the only narratives we hear about minorities are ones which focus on negative aspects and/or stereotypes of a given minority, so when we hear someone say that there is more violence in minority communities, we immediately think that the person saying this is a racist. This leads to issues of violence against women of color being suppressed. To solve this problem, a full range of minorities’ experiences should be portrayed in society instead of just focusing on negative aspects of minority communities. If we do this, we can talk about issues of violence in minority communities without being called a racist. I think we should also force services for abused women to allow women who do not speak English to get help from them. If they insist on having women speak for themselves, they should have counselors that speak languages other than English available to speak with women who cannot speak English. Of course, this may require additional funding to services for abused women, but isn’t it a great cause to be funding? Our society, especially the United States, needs to make violence against all women more of a priority than it currently is.

Mis[s]representation of Women

There were several facts presented in Miss Representation that surprised me. First, one of the commentators noted that women are preventing themselves from gaining leadership positions because they are the most skeptical of women in leadership positions. I hadn’t even thought about this, but thinking about my own family, both of my grandmothers were very skeptical about a woman becoming the President of the United States. They expressed concerns that a woman would not be able to run the country as well as men have for the past two centuries. I imagine that there are more women that think this way, which upsets me. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mentioned that women in leadership roles in this country had to stop the men in office from making changes to Title IX legislation, which shocked me. This shows that there is a dire need for women in our government so that women’s voices are heard. I also didn't realize how female journalists are portrayed as sexual objects in news broadcasts. When the film played a montage of clips from various news programs, I was disturbed by how much female journalists have been sexualized in the media. This shows how society has become so used to seeing sexualized female news anchors that we don’t even think about it anymore.

I learned a lot from Miss Representation, but there were a few things that stuck out. First, as various quick facts flashed across the screen throughout the film, one caught my attention: America spends more on advertising than the entire GDP of 80% of the countries in the world. Think of all the things that could be done with that money that would be a better investment for our country: helping those who are less fortunate, supporting scientific research to end diseases such as AIDs or cancer, or even paying off some of the United States debt. Regardless of anyone’s political beliefs, I think most of us would agree that there are many better things to spend that much money on than advertising. I also found it interesting that often times in the media negative verbs are used for women in power. For example, the media will use the phrase “she demanded” as opposed to the much less negative “she asked.” The film also mentioned that women had much more diverse roles in 20s and 30s films than they do in today’s films. I find this really strange, since we claim that women are treated more fairly now and have the freedom to branch out into the so-called “male” jobs and roles. Yet our films and television are not accurately portraying this shift.

I was able to relate to a lot that was presented in the film, specifically the way that men are scrutinized about their appearance much less than women are. While the film focused on how this manifests itself in the media, I have found it true in my everyday life. Whenever I have attended any social gathering, whether it was with friends or family, I have always found that the women I am around are judged on their appearance much more than the men are. In some situations where it’s perfectly fine for a man to wear jeans and a t-shirt, women feel like they need to wear a dress and makeup in order to impress everyone. I’ve never understood why this occurs.

While the film did focus on the problems women face when trying to obtain leadership roles, and the scrutiny they face once they land in these roles, Miss Representation also discussed ways to promote more women to leadership roles and make sure they are respected when they land in these roles. First, the promotion of women for positions of power needs to begin at an early age: Devanshi Patel, a high school student, was involved in Youth in Government, which promotes young people, specifically women, to jump into leadership roles at a young age. The film also encouraged everyone to challenge the media to view women as more than just sexual objects. One way they proposed doing this was by avoiding watching television shows and films in which women are not respected as they should be. Finally, my favorite suggestion was that women in leadership roles need to mentor those that are trying to obtain leadership roles. Women need someone to look up to and encourage them to pursue these roles, and there is no one better to do this than those who are already in these positions.