Social: 2. Consequences of organization

Nations with organized social structures boast of being developed. The organization throws a ring of safety around all its members, assuring freedom and security without discriminations. It is meant to ensure that people know their functions and respect boundaries in society.  The success of the system lies in the strict maintenance of the structure. But in the process, the contexts of gender often fall through the cracks. 

The assumption is that people living in the developed nations lead other regions in being far more enlightened about the meanings of freedom and equality. Less developed nations have more orthodox societies, where women generally swathe in traditional attire in deference to dominant attitudes. Their social choices are few, even of dress.

Modern women especially in the West, flaunt their liberation from bondage.  They choose revealing clothing to emphasize their achieving control of their own bodies. In the post-feminist era, feminine fashion choices are statements of personal identity.

However, the men appear to not share the women’s perceptions of themselves. Gender equations tend to remain conservative, as they were in the past. The men may instead perceive the modern women’s fashions as signals of sexual depravity, inviting exploitation.

For example, at a law school in Canada, a visiting police officer reportedly declared to his youthful audience that, “women should avoid dressing like sluts to avoid being victimized”.  Clearly, the conditioning persists that the onus of responsible social behaviour rests with  women. 

The stereotypical thinking reinforces  the practice of victim blaming, especially if it should be a female. Media reports also carry the same, perhaps unconscious, gender bias regarding gang-rape of young girls. As Freeman points out:

• A newspaper in New Delhi reports the words of the mother of a perpetrator: "If these girls will roam around like this, then the boys will make mistakes."
• On another occasion, a newspaper in New York notes that "[The 11-year old girl] dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground …"

In UK, gender equality is widely claimed by men, as well as women of substance. And yet, the already powerless fail to find compassion within systems accustomed to conventional ways of thinking. The plight of victims’ seeking redressal is akin to jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Victims of marital rape discover to their cost that their perspectives are neither understood nor considered.

For example, news media reports:

Last autumn, a 28-year-old mother began an eight-month prison sentence for "falsely retracting" a rape allegation against her husband, despite the court accepting that she had suffered prolonged domestic abuse and had withdrawn the rape accusation under pressure from her husband.

In effect, the woman, a rape victim hostage in her own home, is accorded no mercy for being so.  The adjucators of crime are unmoved by the situational context. In the sentencing, the system evaluates her offence as the greater social evil. The moot point being overlooked is, as Gentleman writes:

The nature of rape as a crime that usually occurs in private, with only the victim as a witness, makes it challenging to prosecute. How to handle allegations of rape that are subsequently retracted by the victim is an equally fraught part of law. When is it in the public interest to prosecute the woman for perverting the course of justice?

The pillars of the social structure uphold the civilized tradition that ‘all men are equal’. But for women in any patriarchal system, the reality is very different, and it matters little which part of the world they are in. 

Gender issues take on stereotypical colouring even in the minds of the makers of law. UK’s Justice Secretary is keen to intoduce legislation to give suspected criminals a fifty percent discount should they plead guilty before trial. The move, meant to be an incentive to decrease the time people have to spend in Court over trials, may actually be a boon for repeat offenders.

A news report explains the concern of some judges:

The plans could lead to a defendant being sentenced to three years in jail, but having this reduced to 18 months and then only serving nine months - or even less if eligible for a home detention curfew … [it risks] becoming an inappropriate reflection of the original culpability…

The discounts would serve to put rapists back in circulation far quicker. All they would need to do is plead guilty to soon resume where they left off. The Secretary also makes a distinction between “serious rape” and “date rape” - i.e., 17-year-olds having intercourse with 15-year-olds.  In his wisdom, the latter seems rather more acceptable, and less necessary to punish. 

Similar attitudes exist across the pond in USA, where the Learned Courts have upheld organizational rulings against a schoolgirl raped by a fellow student. Smith relates:

HS was 16 at the time she complained she was raped in 2008. Her attacker was charged with sexual assault, but after a plea deal, admitted misdemeanour assault and got a princely sentence of no time served. She was told to keep a low profile at school to avoid attracting attention…in 2009 when she attended a basketball game as a member of the cheerleading squad and was ordered to cheer for her attacker…

When the girl refused to shake pom-poms for the basketball player at a school event, she was suspended from the team. She then challenged the suspension in the Courts. Smith reports on the legal outcome:

The initial court ruled against her, an appellate court upheld that decision, and the supreme court refused to hear the matter … The result? A student exercising her free-speech rights has been ordered to pay a penalty to the school district, on the grounds that her original suit was a "frivolous lawsuit".

Seccuro was drugged and raped repeatedly at a college party. The emotional trauma she suffered scarred her for life.  When she reported the crime to authorities, she was asked whether she had had sex but didn't want to admit that she wasn’t a ‘good girl’. Eventually her attacker was sentenced to ten years in prison, but was released in less than six months, perhaps because he was white and educated. Twenty years later, with "spiritual awakening" he wrote to apologize for the "collateral damage" his alcoholism had caused. 

Notions of gender domination and objectifying women may have changed little despite the claims of the post-feminist era. Many men, outwardly liberal, harbour in mind implicit theories of gender inequality that guide their actions. Their latent prejudices diffuse into the social organization. It should be of little surprise then that despite the general fall in recorded crime in England, serious sexual crimes have risen by about six percent over the twelve months ending in December last. 

In the atmosphere of acceptance in the new millennium, the men may actually grow to expect decreasing social censure in their playing out dominant sexual fantasies. Freedom may come to mean the licence to exploit. In Ireland, women protestors taken into custody for demonstrating against oil pipelines were joked about by the arresting police officers, recorded as saying “Give me your name and address and I'll rape you.” 

Development largely refers to  advancements of technology, and thence economics, communication channels, weaponry, infrastructure and so on.  Although it is generally assumed that openness of mind arrives in the process, evolution of mind does not at all keep pace with the technology. In truth, the structure of organized society itself may be constraining change. 

Similar to elsewhere, the people of developed nations rely on conventional wisdom to guide their actions. The habit of not fixing what ain’t broke, tends to perpetrate change-resistant patriarchal attitudes within the organization just as before.  Women awaiting organized rescue, wait in vain.  

If they are to wrest equality inside the existing structures, they must innovate social confrontation of the organized discrimination. Seccuro motivated herself to seek the justice her attacker had so long eluded. And in Canada, a new women's movement sprouts across the country - SlutWalking!

References for this post:

1. Davis, Rowena. “Irish police chief apologises for officers who joked about raping protesters” guardian.co.uk. The Guardian. 8 April 2011. 
2. Freeman, Hadley. “Rape is not a compliment” guardian.co.uk. Comment. The Guardian. 30 March 2011. 
3. Gentleman, Amelia. “'Restoring confidence so victims report rape is key'” guardian.co.uk. The Guardian. 19 April 2011. 
4. Jones, Sam. “Recorded crime falls despite rise in sexual offences and knife-point robbery” News. guardian.co.uk. The Guardian. 20 April 2011. 
5. Pilkington, Ed. “SlutWalking gets rolling after cop's loose talk about provocative clothing” guardian.co.uk. The Guardian. 6 May 2011.
6. Seccuro, Liz. “Dear Rapist…” News. guardian.co.uk. The Guardian. 30 April 2011. 
7.  “Sentencing plans 'would not reflect severity of crimes'” News report. bbc.co.uk. News UK. BBC. 6 April 2011. 
8. Slack, James. “Tearful rape victim challenges Ken Clarke over 'disastrous' plans to halve sentences of attackers who plead guilty” dailymail.co.uk. The Daily Mail. 18th May 2011. 
9. Smith, SE. “Cheerleader's protest after assault was not 'frivolous'” guardian.co.uk. Article. The Guardian. 5 May 2011.