Eliminating the Bystander Effect

A. ​The root causes of the injustices that affect women in the United States stem from a patriarchal society and capitalist economy, direct consequences of globalization which marginalize women’s work and knowledge.

1. Relevant Laws and Policies 

    Globalization is the process of economic interaction between the people, companies, and governing bodies of different nations, and patriarchy is a system in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it. Economic, political, social, and cultural power are all male dominated in the West - or the United States, Western Europe, and Japan – and anywhere that is socially or economically influenced by the West.

    Cultural constructions of nature lie at the intersection of economic, political, and social interaction, and serve to empower some members of society while removing power from others. Ideas of what is natural, what is wild, and what needs to be tamed are derived from these cultural constructions and lead to the “otherization” of particular groups of people, including women (Adamson, 2002). Our use of dualisms in our society and language further this division of ‘them versus us’. ‘Man versus woman’ and ‘man versus nature’ put men above women and nature in society, which stems from our country’s inception through colonization and our history of killing people and the land in the name of manifest destiny. In order to maintain social privilege, the ‘true American’ man must dominate all others (Shiva, 2014), which leads to violation of the land, people of color, the poor, the young, the disabled, non-heterosexuals, and women.

2. Analysis

    The idealized woman, frail, sentimental, dependent, and longing to please, was created as a compliment to the ‘true man’, the manly conqueror. Real living women are not simply the characteristics of the idealized woman; they can be strong and independent and therefore had to be physically destroyed and subdued in order to be remade in the idealized image. This destruction of real women is showcased in pornography, mainstream media, sex trafficking, and the like (Mies b, 2014). It is no surprise, then, that we see sexual violence against women and all other people who are ‘less-than’ in American culture.

    All people are influenced by systems of power and oppression, including patriarchy, sexism, racism, classism, ageism and so on. Our individual identities are shaped by the categories we ‘belong to’ within society. Bell and Braun argue that men’s and women’s identities both shape and constrain their activism. This means that every individual, environmentalist, or social justice advocate brings their own baggage to the table, and this baggage can and does influence what they perceive as environmental issues and the solutions they propose. In fact, a person’s experiences and identity determine not only their interest in issues but the likelihood that they will participate in prevention methods or activism (Bell, 2010). Both perceptions of the environment and the environmental movement are gendered, which contributes to the naturalization of women and their abuse.

    The liberation of the environment and oppressed peoples can never be solved through means based on the dominant patriarchal, colonizer society, that naturalizes women and Others, because even the oppressors are caught in the culture of oppression.  Colonization and oppression remove people’s rights, which according to the Social Justice Framework, society needs to “promote choice and freedom more broadly among people who have traditionally had more limited options” (Mutz et al., 2002, p. 49) to expand people’s rights rather than limit or remove them. In order to free the oppressed, this mentality of oppression must first be eliminated. Shiva (2014) argues that humans must rid themselves of their belief that they are separate from and above nature, an argument which I believe extends to eliminating beliefs in dualisms.

    The use of dualisms or pluralisms in our language, including man over woman and man over nature, assign more inherent value to the dominant dualisms, in this case man. Colonial and patriarchal language keep people limited even in thought. Devolved collaboration is a method of decision making that aims to eliminate dualisms through an increase in representation of oppressed peoples. This method dismisses command and control decision making in favor of local control and diverse input (Mutz, 2002). This approach could be key to the elimination of re-victimization of sexual violence survivors in the public university system.

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3. Conclusion

These aspects of Western culture have begun to spread around the world. The ‘good life’ or Western lifestyle has been spread through globalization and emphasis on the individual as a consumer rather than on community values. With this good life model comes all of the West’s ideas regarding race, gender, class, and so on. The West has a mentality within its culture that once we have exploited our own minorities as much as possible or they fight back, we can just look to exploit someone else that cannot fight back instead. This mentality extends from the macro level of the society to the micro level of the individuals that, once colonized, experience a shift in their roles and way of life to reflect Western ideals (Mies a, 2014). Women and Others are to be conquered, consumed, physically destroyed.

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B. Malthusian eugenics policies have been used in the United States and around the world to hinder women’s rights to their own bodies and any decisions that affect them, and to profit off of feminine ‘care’ products.

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1. Relevant Laws and Policies

    Ideas of what needs to be conquered are especially evident in population control policies. Malthusian ideals of population are inaccurate, not based on facts but eugenics (the science of ‘improving’ the human race through controlled breeding to increase desirable characteristics), yet they are the basis for many population control policies in the West. These policies limit the marriage and reproduction of certain groups of ‘unfit’ people including the poor, disabled, socially and politically defiant, and all people who are “otherized” (Hartman, 2004). Neo-Malthusianism began in the 1950’s and continues to perpetuate the use of eugenics in public policy around the world, covering everything from overconsumption of resources to climate change. The United Nations International Conference on Population of 1994 is often viewed as a turning point for women’s rights and the elimination of eugenics policies (Hartman, 2004), however women are still living under population control policies that contribute to their status as second-class citizens.

    Racial minorities and the poor around the world are blamed for population growth and thus, environmental destruction and global warming, which has resulted in campaigns to prevent pregnancy in minority women, which range from purposely providing misinformation to cases of forced sterilization. The forced sterilization of minorities is a direct result of our current environmental justice system’s regulations, subsidies, taxes, and participatory requirements addressing only the consequences of injustice rather than preventing it. Racial restraints on access to opportunities and resources results in minority peoples being pushed toward the “ills and edges of environmental opportunity” (Mutz et al., 2002, p. 117).  Women are kept subservient through lack of education and systemic reproductive control with everything from forced sterilization to anti-abortion policies.

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2. Analysis

    Population policies in the Global South that are linked to preventing climate change negatively affect women’s quality of life, which can be identified through the Environmental Justice Framework (EJF). These policies place blame on the people who are least responsible for contributing to global warming and spread false ‘science’ that allows the West to continue consuming significantly more natural resources than the rest of the world. Viewing access to contraceptives and information as a way to prevent climate change rather than as a basic human right results in the coercion and forced sterilization of women. These ‘family planning’ methods disproportionately affect poor women, women of color, the disabled, non-heterosexuals, and anyone else that is viewed as unfit to reproduce. According to the EJF, “development should have as its primary objective the expansion of the freedoms that people enjoy by empowering people and by removing the major limits on freedom” (Mutz et al., 2002, p. 49), and it should not isolate “otherized” peoples. The same eugenics polies have been utilized in the united states and they continue to affect women here and around the world (Hartman, January). This has an entirely negative effect on sexual education, contraceptive use, and sexual violence prevention and education in schools.

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3. Analysis

    Population control in the name of ending climate change and the concepts, metaphors, and dominant cultural narratives surrounding what is natural are mechanisms of our patriarchal, colonizer society. As previously stated, they are used to naturalize women and Others in a way that justifies social inequalities. Everyone that is not a heterosexual, white, able-bodied, rich man is subjected to some level(s) of inequality. Accepting inequalities such as sexual violence as ‘the norm’ naturalizes them in a way that prevents people from taking action (Sturgeon, 2009).

    When violence is a part of everyday life, when it becomes mundane, the need to question it becomes less and less. This is the case for women and their reproductive control. Reproductive control over women does not necessarily mean preventing them from accessing birth control or abortions. In many cases, pushing women toward contraception and other feminine care creates even more violations of their rights and autonomy. The decisions about an individual’s body belong solely in their hands. “Women who love, know, and respect their bodies rebel against these violations of their autonomy” (Muscio, 2002). Muscio’s even claims that if women continue to be as scared of their reproductive power as men are, then we can never create women-made contraception and gain sovereignty from the onslaught of hormone pills and products that were not made for the benefit of women’s bodies.

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C. Sexual education in the United States does not prepare children for the transition into physical maturity, and the cultural and physical impacts affect them because of their anatomy.

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1. Relevant Laws and Policies

    Sexual education begins in the 5th or 6th grade, and primarily deals with the functions of male and female bodies in biological terms. Many school districts only require one year of sexual education, and then students are considered prepared. In most cases, there is no education about the social aspects of sex. In fact, countless schools forgo sexual education classes altogether in favor of abstinence only education. At the same time, many schools refuse to offer feminine hygiene products or any counseling for girls beginning their menstrual cycle. Young women are not properly educated about their bodies, how to care for them, or about birth control. Many forms of birth control are not tested for extended use and cause long term health issues. Although it is currently being worked on, there is still no form of hormonal male birth control. In fact, many medications and remedies are tested on male subjects only (Muscio, 2002), and women are disproportionately affected by negative side-effects.

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2. Analysis

    Because young people are not educated about the social aspects of sex and intimacy, and because they live in a society of patriarchal dominance and power, some people find ways to gain individual power through taking it from others, even in the form of sexual violence. One in five women and one in sixteen men in the United States are sexually assaulted (Presidential Task Force, 2014), and this number is significantly higher for minorities and people who do not identify as heterosexual or gender-conforming. Sexual assault can negatively affect victims in various ways and significantly diminish their quality of life.

    Woman are collectively more harshly affected by sexual violence crimes due to their very anatomy. Because women are “otherized” in the West, and because there are mental, cultural, and physical disadvantages to being a woman, they can be categorized as a minority in the United States (despite women making up half of the human population). According to the Civil Rights Framework (CRF), “politicians who make decisions and policies that distribute benefits to politically powerful interests or violate treaty or statutory rights and agreements may do so because of the perception that there is little political cost, and considerable political gain, in ignoring these rights and commitments” (Mutz et al., 2002, p. 34). Minorities are unable to fight back and claim that an injustice has been committed because of economic and systemic issues and a lack of representation, which violates their civil rights. Politicians believe they can take advantage of women and get away with it, and so far, they have been correct. Women face a very layered, cultural and systemic line of issues that cause environmental racism and environmental injustice.

    Reproductive freedom is the right to the freedom of choice regarding if and when a person will have children. Reproductive Justice analyzes and combats reproductive abuse, or the loss of freedom, being coerced or forced into use of birth control, sterilization, or reproduction, and purposeful misinformation or lack of information. Today’s population policies both in the United States and the Third World are products of Neo-Malthusianism, or an emphasis on eugenics in population control, which began in the 1950’s and continues to perpetuate the use of eugenics in public policy around the world. These policies violate individual choice and responsibility including but not limited to the use of birth control, abortions, and sterilization. Policies and laws “rest on an underlying layer of meaning that is not objective but, instead, depends on and reflects dominant culture and social beliefs” (Mutz et al., 2002, p. 48), which do not favor minorities. The Malthusian population growth model has been used to determine that population growth and unequal access to land and resources creates the marginalization of disadvantaged peoples. It is believed that this in turn creates environmental degradation, poverty, political instability, and violence, however the Malthusian model does not address the social systems that are partially if not majorly responsible for causing these issues (Ullman et al., 2014). Viewing marginalization and suffering as an individual issue rather than a structural social problem blames the poor for poverty, women for being raped. Sexual violence is caused by systemic issues relating to the naturalization of women and Others, and of women’s ‘place’ in society. “A further perspective might be: a man could, feasibly, sacrifice his coffee break raping a woman. That woman would then spend her entire life dealing with it. So would her daughters. So would theirs. This distribution of power is not acceptable” (Muscio, 2002, p. 146).

    President Obama commissioned a Sexual Assault Task Force in 2014 in an effort to lessen and/or eliminate the instances of sexual violence on college campuses and/or of college students. About one in five women and one in sixteen men who attend college will fall victim to sexual violence or attempted sexual violence. This number has remained steady throughout the past eight years (Presidential Task Force to Tackle Sexual Assault at Universities, 2014) despite the existence of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which is intended to protect people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance. Recipients such as universities have Title IX responsibilities in areas such as recruitment, admissions, counseling, financial assistance, athletics, sex-based harassment, and employment (Office of Civil Rights, 2015). Many public universities have a Title IX program that works to create a safe campus environment through education and providing counseling. These programs are currently not effective enough and education students about preventative sexual violence measures.

The Humboldt State University Title IX team strives to create a campus free of sexual violence through education and support. All students in the State University system are required to watch one or more sexual violence education videos as part of their orientation program. Many individual university Title IX teams are working to increase the frequency of required videos to every semester (Human Resources, 2016), but this is not enough.

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3. Conclusion

    More needs to be done to prevent violence and help victims, but this is difficult as many experts believe prevention of sexual violence is most possible trough addressing the perpetrator’s motivation (rather than the victim’s behaviors prior to attack).

This would require the identification of windows of opportunity to commit sexually violent acts, the driving forces influencing the perpetrators, implementing intervention methods, and creating consequences. These actions can be taken by schools to lessen risk (Ottens et al., 2000), and create an environment where students are not victimized.