The Issue of Rape

Abigail Remillard

Laura Turner

“Family violence and abuse are among the most prevalent forms of interpersonal violence against women and young children- both boy s and girls.”(rape statistics). The sexual abuse of a child should never be “just a family matter,” but many children are afraid to report an incident to the police because the abusers are too often a family friend or relative. Rape is defined as the crime of forcing another person to submit to sex acts. Rape can be of anyone and committed anywhere. As the popular billboard says “sex without consent is Rape.” Although this statement can seem simple, it is a largely overlooked fact that the majority of reported rape incidents take place in domestic settings, such as with family members or “friends.”

 This concept can be seen in the movie “Precious,” where the main character is emotionally and physically abused by her own family. The obstacles Precious must overcome are controversial in that they expose the often hidden and underlying abuse seen in the area of society with a lower income and located in less auspicious areas. She is raped by her father which consequently causes the abuse of her mother from jealousy issues. She contracts AIDS and two special needs children from this horrible situation that she was subjected to. 

According to the website on rape victims in the United States, www.rainn.org/statistics, 73% of the rape victims know their assailants. 1 in 6 women will be sexually assaulted in their life time and this goes for 1 in 33 men as well, proving that this is an issue that traverses gender as well as race. However, the fact must be considered that not all rape incidents are reported. The stereotypical “Strong Black Woman” may choose to keep this suffering to herself, as part of her selflessness.

The issue of rape is discussed in the current class reading “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.” On pages 17-21 of this choreopoem, the author Ntozake Shange has her “colored girls” all contribute to a poetical conversation, creating a discordant harmony of their ideas on how rape can be from a friend just as easily, if not more so, than from a stranger. The fact that all of the “colored” girls are in accordance on this topic speaks of an underlying trauma, that perhaps they speak from experience. “Colored Girls” covers various aspects of abuse aside from just rape. Victims can be physically, emotionally, and spiritually abused. In order for victims to come to terms with themselves and their past abusive treatment, they must embrace who they are and where they’ve been in order to embark on their journey for wellness and wholeness.

Control Freaks

In today’s society, is it still a common theme to be defined by a man, such as your significant other, or for a man to have that desire to be the power figure in a relationship? Women who are subservient to a man are seen as weak and without gumption. But, would relationships such as Janie’s to Jodie in Their Eyes Were Watching God, which was very mentally abusive, be seen as all right because of the security Joe brought Janie? At what point does the positives of a relationship not outweigh the negative abuse and thus make the woman not considered strong for staying in it.

Throughout the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God there is a prevalent theme of women being defined by their relationships to men, particularly Janie. Our more in depth investigation came when we saw the theme of abuse (physical and mental) in the novel. There a numerous examples in the text of times when abuse becomes a means of control. Focusing on this abusive control, we related it back to modern day to see if the judgments of abused women are still the same.  

Abuse in this instance is used as a way to keep control over the women and thus define her by the man’s standards. On p. 74-75 Walter Thomas says that if his wife were to act the way Mrs. Robbins did he would “kill her” or “break her,” and criticizes Mr. Robbins for not keeping her in line. But Mrs. Robbins is trying to get food for her and her children to eat because she says they are hungry. Is she strong because she is doing what she can to provide for her children, or is Walter Thomas right in criticizing her husband for not keeping her in line? Is a man today still seen as weak if he can’t keep his woman from doing things he disagrees with? Can a woman today still be strong if she keeps from doing what she thinks is right (like beg for food for her children) because her husband disagrees?

Another instance is when Tea Cake hits Janie for the actions of Mrs. Turner. Janie reacts to this with more compassion and love for Tea Cake, which some can judge as weak because she took it as an act of passion than an act of control. So can a strong black women be in an abusive relationship? Now a day’s women have more outlets for help when they are being physically or even mentally abused. Would a strong black woman take that kind of abuse these days?

What is considered abuse to you?

"Relationship Abuse is a pattern of abusive and coercive behaviors used to maintain power and control over a former or current intimate partner. An abusive relationship means more than being hit by the person who claims to love or care about you. Abuse can be emotional, psychological, financial, sexual or physical and can include threats, isolation, and intimidation. Abuse tends to escalate over time. When someone uses abuse and violence against a partner, it is always part of a larger pattern to try to control her/him."
www.stanford.edu/group/svab/relationships.shtml

Some facts about abuse:

The majority of domestic violence victims are women.

More than 32 million Americans are affected by domestic violence each year.

(Joyful Heart Foundation)

We have discussed in class before how in order for a black woman to be seen as a Strong Black Woman she needed to be sacrificing and always struggling. Is violent abuse a way of sacrificing her body, and her mind in order to keep the household together, to keep the appearance of a family? Could it also be said that in order for the black woman to be seen as strong, she would have to sacrifice her man by leaving him? Also, on the last page of chapter 9 Janie is often told that "uh woman by herself is uh pitiful thing....[she] needs a man."

Not only is there the extreme of abuse, but the fact that a lot of women who are considered strong may still be under the control of a man, or feel the need to always have, and please a man. For example would a strong black woman like Michelle Obama stand up to her husband if they disagreed politically?

Appearance in the black community is a big deal.

Hair in the black community is a big deal.

As far as African American women are concerned the way in which they choose to parade their hair is a huge indicator of their character build. More often than not to be classified as an African American woman of high socioeconomic distinction in a primarily Euro centric focused society means appropriating your hair to fit those standards. Standards brought forth by the American ideas of beauty surrounding the Caucasian woman. To have straight hair as an African American woman lends its self to a level of success that not to naturally can be achieved without some form of unnatural modifications. These modifications can sometimes lead to an over extension of physical, financial and emotional means.    


"Stress is a hidden killer underlying all the major health problems black women face. Over-burdened and over-extended, stress is the body's response to carrying more than it can bear." -Bell Hooks


It is not uncommon to hear an African American woman say that her hair has been breaking and then immediately relate that damage to stress. The actual stress however, be it financial or emotional, can bare all remnants where trying to determine what hair style will best fit for that week, month, or situation. Often there are other expectations and standards that black women feel they are required to fulfill. These expectations and 'standards' can cause black women to lose themselves; in much the same way that Clare lost touch with who she was in order to fulfill her husband, Mr. Bellows, standards of beauty in Nella Larsen's Passing. Clare as a whole seems to battle with demons of her race in relation to her appearance these manifest themselves in the outward changes she makes, and thinks to make in order to pass as a Caucasian woman. Such as the talk she has with Gertrude about the prospect of straightening their hair in order to appear more white.

While the stresses that once plagued the African American woman's hair in regard to social race in class, in more modern times the stress of African American hair standards plague the character of women. What makes the standard of trying to fit in for the women of Passing any different from what make the standard for wanting to meet a standard in today's society. Where is the line really drawn between perceptions of trying to become 'white' and embracing what maintains a lower level of stress i.e. to be natural?

"I wonder when relaxing my hair became an act of self-rejection? My mother, grandmother and most of the women I know still relax their hair. What does this say about them? My mother and grandmother are both phenomenal women in their own right. I find it hard to imagine that relaxing their hair has been a manifestation of a racial inferiority complex. Does it mean that they have been unconsciously buying into a certain ideal? Would it be unfair to shift the blame onto  the media for suggesting that the dominant images of beauty drive women of all races to aspire to a certain ideal which included straight, silky hair?" - Annette Q.

Sources: Black Hair DayAnnette Quarcoopome
http://imaginingourselves.imow.org/pb/Story.aspx?id=1299〈=1&g=0

 The Colored Museum- Hairpiece
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcwPOVVZZIA

Kristin Salter

I think that college-age students can deal with this by not condoning the thought that lighter skinned black people are better off than darker skinned black people. It is hard because media does not make the situation better. For instance, one of the most popular rap artist’s of our time Lil’ Wayne has a line in one of his recent songs that says, “beautiful black woman, I bet that bitch look better red” (“red” meaning light skinned). This creates a lasting problem because black people are not his only audience, in fact there are many white people that love listening to Lil’ Wayne. So now instead of only black people noticing and placing judgments on light skin verses dark skin, white people may think one is better than the other as well. But what about the white people that get tans on a regular? How come nobody ever questions their wanting to be darker like they question the black person who wants to always be in the shade in the summer time to preserve their light skin color? Or when there is a group of white people with one “token black boy/girl”, that one black person is typically one of the darkest black people but the white group he/she is hanging with does not reject him/her. So personally I think that the whole light skin verses dark skin perception is media induced. Some people fall victim to those awful perceptions and others do not, it all depends on the individual.

A Different Shade of Black

“I recall summertime visits from my maternal great-grandmother, a well-educated, light-complexioned, straight-haired black southern woman who discouraged me and my brother from associating with darker-skinned children or from standing or playing for long periods in the July sunlight, which threatened to blacken our already too-dark skin”   (Graham 1).

Graham uses his grandmother’s anecdote to address the prevalent negative connotations associated with being darker-skinned as opposed to being lighter-skinned.

Having a lighter skin tone in society is an ideology that goes back to the days of the enslavement of Africans. As seen in Lawrence Otis Graham’s selection from Our Kind of People, the lighter skinned slaves were more often found working in the house and had different opportunities for education, better food, and better living conditions while field slaves usually did not have any chance of getting educated and were forced to endure the poorest food and living conditions. This was a direct action taken by racist whites to put the idyllic lighter skin on a pedestal.

Today, magazines, television, and other sources of media portray lighter-toned skin as the beauty ideal. “In 1990 $44 million was spent on skin bleaching products in this country” (Racism, Colorism and Power). Typically, Black people with darker-shaded skin were often portrayed negatively in movies. If a film was not an explicitly Black film, then the Black characters would often get killed off first, or something of that nature, if it was that type of movie. In other films and television shows, darker women tended to have “worse” things happen to them. In a Maryland study, 76% motorists stopped on highway were African American—meanwhile, only 20% were licensed drivers in that state. In a recent article by Kia Miakka Natisse, rapper Lil’ Wayne allegedly stated that, “he made sure that all his other baby mommas were light-skinned.” Here at FSU, we occasionally receive crime updates via email. Most of the criminal profiles describe Black males, along with the infrequent Hispanic male.

It is plain to see that not only racial prejudice but also inter-racial prejudice still exists today. The question is, how do college-aged students respond to this treatment? Why does it exist? How can this generation improve upon the negative ideas placed on Blacks of a darker shade?

Sources:

Lawrence Otis Graham’s excerpt from Our Kind of People

Larry D. Crawford’s article Racism, Colorism and Power (http://www.nbufront.org/FRONTalView/ArticlesPapers/Crawford_RacismColorismPower.html)

Kia Miakka Natisse’s article Lil' Wayne's love of light-skinned women leads to black-lash (http://www.thegrio.com/entertainment/lil-waynes-love-of-light-skinned-women-leads-to-protests.php) 

Photo: (http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/to-be-honest-does-a-black-man-scare-you-as-president/question-212269/?link=ibaf&imgurl=http://ithinkbeyond.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/skin-colors-711079-sw.jpg&q=black%2Bpeople%2Bdifferent%2Bshades)