RAPE/SEXUAL ABUSE

Rape/Sexual Abuse

Rape/Sexual Abuse

Introduction

The torture and rape of women has been commonplace on the society and notably so since at least, the archaic times. While behaviors such as torture and rape are no longer socially acceptable or politically correct, they are still condoned and practiced in all modern societies, as well as endorsed in others. Although women today are not so readily expected or openly commanded to throw themselves at the will of their male acquaintances, counterparts, or husbands, female degradation, as well as mental and physical battering through rape still exist at embarrassing levels. Acquaintance harassment and abuse, by far, is the worst, as though women have traveled through centuries of time, they must still acknowledge that they cannot intrinsically trust those whom are held nearest and dearest to their hearts.

Analysis

Backtrack the female heritage back to the archaic age and we find that women have had a price on their head and that their worth was settled based on that price. Dowries, priced at fifty pieces of silver could buy a woman from her family for the purpose of marriage. More so, in the case of poor families, single female children were sold so that the family would have more money for the male child and his future family life endeavors. Because the young woman was bought at a price, she was considered to be the property and under the control of her husband. Women were brought into subjectivity of the state through the husband's authority and could be controlled and beaten at his will. The husband was to act as an advocate for the State, acting on its' behalf if he felt that his wife was out of control and purposely bringing any type of harm against that State. In archaic Roman times, poetry portrayed women as inherently evil and forces to be reckoned with. (Wilson, 1997, Pp. 255-57).

Christianity, also, did nothing for the case of women and their rights. The Church, in conjunction with the State dipped its' hands into the pot of abuse by condemning any control that a woman may have over her own body. The church, particularly the Catholic Church, condemned any form of birth control. The Church also forbade abortions and the rhythm method. Clearly, the intent was for a woman to know her place in the family home and to have as many children as her husband deemed necessary or so desired. Midwives were said to be sinning by attempting to ease the pain of childbirth. After all, Eve, back in the Garden of Eden had committed the "Original Sin". She was a temptress, attempting to remove women from the will of God, as all women were required to bear the pain of childbirth as a punishment and furthermore, as remembrance of that Original Sin (Wilson, 1997, Pp. 258-259).

Beginning in the Sixteenth Century, the Witch Hunt became a new means of controlling women. The "hunt" was another way of combining the beliefs of the Church as well as man's ownership of the female ...