More Myths!

So this week in class we were to discuss more myths and truths! Yay!

We were asked to research a particular myth that we have heard or have thought. I chose to research a myth of violence in homosexual relationships.

I've heard that some people believe that DV is more common in heterosexual relationships. Myth or truth?

I found some great statistics on the Stansilus' Women's Center website (ttp://hwcstan.squarespace.com/lgbt/2010/5/28/ten-myths-regarding-domestic-violence-in-same-sex-relationsh.html)

Here it says that about 23 to 25 % of same-sex relationships experience DV. This is actually about he same ratio as DV in heterosexual relationships! In fact, about 1 in 4 gay men and about 1 in 4 gay women have experienced domestic violence by these statistics.

It's a funny myth once I begin to think about it. What makes people in same-sex relationships any less violent than their heterosexual counterparts? Nothing, because same-sex couples are just as likely to experience DV as heterosexual couples.


This myth is BUSTED!!!!


However, now my questions lead to Transgender Violence.

A few years ago Caityln from MTV's "The Real World" Came to the UI campus to speak. Holy crap it was an AMAZING speech! She's so funny and really honest and I think that really helped the crowd pay attention to her story and the overall message she was bringing us. My gushing aside, she brought up an interesting fact about how a lot of times people who are transgendered expereince frequent dating violence. A lot of times MTF (Males to Females) or FTM's (Female to males) are in fear that if they tell their significant other (who often times identify as straight) that they might react with violence. Caityln affirms this. However, I wanted to look into the research a little bit more on this topic.

What I found was an article in the jounral of "Agression and Violent Behavior". This research done by self report survey's shows that 69% of MTFs reported of being a victim of rape. 30% of FTMs reported a being a victim of rape. Quite a difference right? I believe that a part of this could be our patriarchial society in action. In our society men are "supposed to be" masculine and when they are not they are "deviant". These men who are labeled deviant in our society are then target of perpetrators out to assert their own masculinities and power. We talked about this more in my Soc of Gender class and I can't remember some of the other reasons for this. If they come to me later I'll post them.

Anyways, on to more statistics. Including both MTFs and FTMs about 50% reported unwanted sexual activity and 59% reported they were vicitims of rape. That is over half!!! This study delves into the reasons the victims percieved were their perpetrators motives. 43% of victims said the violence was due to the perpetrators homophobia while 35% said is it was the perpetrators Transphobia.

While these statistics apply to sexual assualt in general we can maybe get a glimpse into how this may apply to transgender domestic violence. As Caitlyn pointed out, a lot of times these people are victimized by their significant others. From what I know about rape from other classes, usually rapists know their victims. This leads me to assume that many of these 59% of transgendered victims of rape have been raped by their significant others.

So there's some pretty heavy stuff we talked about today. If you all have any questions or comments please send them to me! I'd love to talk with you all about this issues!


* Also as a side note the term Transgendered is an umbrella term for many gender identities. I talked about MTFs and FTMs above, but that does not mean all transgendered people are FTMs and MTFs. There are those that are androgynous, gender queer, two-spirited, and so on and so forth. I really urge those of you who are interested to check out genderfork.com . They have pictures, thoughts, articles, and movies from individuals who identify as transgendered. It's a great start to wrap ones head around the great diversity we have in the transgendered community.

Anyway, I think I've written enough today.




Ciao!

Chapters 1 & 2 : Introduction and Research Methods

What do I expect?

I expect to find out info about how family violence began to be “seen” in society. I also expect to hear in the research methods section about how it is hard to see the true extent of DV in society due to testing.

What did I learn?

Out of all of the amazing information from the first two chapters of this book I believe is the 7 myths about DV. It was very smart of the authors to put this first so that everyone can come learn this material without social bias. These are also myths that I want to share with you all since I have believed some of these myths as well. So here! Lots of knowledge!! Read and learn!!!

Myth 1: Family Violence is Uncommon

Family violence is usually hidden behind closed doors. One of the only ways we can measure the extent of Family Violence might be from self-report surveys. The problem with self-reporting is that not everyone replies, some people don’t answer particular questions, or lie. However, from the information we have received about Family Violence from researchers in this area is that we can safely assume that family violence is more common than our studies show.  However, there is a flip side to that. Myth 2.

Myth 2: Family Violence has reached epidemic levels.

While there may be a lot of media coverage today about DV, that does not necessarily mean that DV is getting any more prevalent than it is in the past. DV has happened throughout history. In fact, children today are more likely than children of the past to be victims of family violence and neglect. However, that does not mean that DV is a problem that we should ignore. It is still a social problem that hurts many people in our time. Since this is a social problem it is our job as a society to try and fix it.

Myth 3: Risk Makers Cause Family Violence.

A lot of people, even in academia, often confuse correlation with causation. CORRELATION ≠DOES NOT EQUAL≠  CAUSATION!!! While certain risk markers increases chances for family violence (risk markers found through Correlational observation or research) it does not explain nor cause family violence. A great example the book gives is that studies shows that adults that violent adults have exposed to much more childhood violence that adults that are non-abusive. This does not mean that all adults that experience childhood violence becomes an abuser. This is Correlational data, it shows a trend, not causation. We must always be aware, especially us going into the helping professions to be actively be aware of correlation and causation while reading journals and other studies.

Myth 4: “Victims Ask for it”

This is one of the most important myths that I think we should bust. I have actually heard people say this as being serious, and also as a joke. People that back up the belief that “Victims ask for it” are people who say thinks like “Well [the victim] was a bitch” or “[The victim] doesn’t leave, it’s their fault it’s still happening”. This kind of talk makes it look like the victims are to blame. The victims ARE NOT to blame. When we say these kinds of things we are shifting the blame from the abusers, who are at fault, to the victims. Pretty sick right? There are also many reasons why victims don’t or can’t leave. Many victims are being controlled by their abusers. They may not have a phone to call for help or friends that can help them. Their lives might be threatened if they tell or show anyone that they are being abused. Also, the victim may have children that might be in danger if they left. And last but not least, it might be hard to believe, but the victim may still be in love with the abuser. Sometimes abusers show two different sides. Sometimes life is good like it always was and the abuser was the person the victim fell in love with. Other times they are not. This is awfully confusing and makes it extremely hard to leave a violence situation. If I want you to read this blog and go away with anything, I ask you to remember this.

I’ve written a lot so far so I am going to skip to Myth 7 since I think it is the next most important.

Myth 7: Women who claim date rape are “lying”, “Deserve it” or were “asking for it”.

Have any of you ever said about a rape victim “She shouldn’t be drinking so much”, “She should have worn jeans and not that ‘skanky skirt’”? I am not proud of it, but I know I have. It wasn’t until my SOC of GENDER class last year that I really thought about this. Why is it that when a girl goes to a party that she must be wear modest clothes (that society says she shouldn’t wear)? Why should she have to watch her drink? Why can’t she get drunk like everyone else at a party and be safe? This myth is a lot like myth 4. We are shifting the blame from the rapists to the victim. Women shouldn’t have to watch how much they drink. RAPISTS SHOULDN’T RAPE!!! A woman shouldn’t have to watch what she’s wearing. RAPIST’S SHOULDN’T RAPE!!! Also, we need to take accusations about rape very seriously. How tough would it be to tell someone you were raped? It is actually, as the book says, uncommon on campus’ to report rape. I can account that it is. While I have heard about rape on our campus, and believe me it does happen, our 2007 safety report shows no reported rapes. In fact, the sheet says “No rape”. If someone is brave enough to tell someone they were raped, we should not shoot them down by sayin’ “pfft, whatever” we need to help them take the proper steps they are willing to take to get them help.

Wow, so this has been a really long post, I hope you all made it here! These are some tough myths to bust but I hope you learned a lot like I did! love to talk to anyone about these if they want! Leave me a comment and I’ll chat!  Also, I urge all of you to talk to people about these myths! The more people we talk to about these, the more people will hear the truth. It is the only way we can start about social change!

-Alex

Let Me Introduce Myself

Hey Everyone,

I’m Alex. I’m a psychology and sociology major finishing up my senior year at the University of Idaho. Currently I am enrolled in the class SOC 404 : Family, Violence, & Society. This class requires me to create a blog where I reflect on our weekly readings in Family Violence Across the Lifespan: An Introduction (2^nd ed) and Why Does He Do That?.  So every week I am going to be posting new information on this blog about what I hope to learn, have learned, and how this applied to me, and the rest of society.

One huge reason I am doing this blog is also to increase social knowledge of Domestic Violence. I see today on Facebook and in conversations with people I encounter that a lot of people have grave misconception of domestic violence (how it starts, it stays, whose fault it is). Most people think that Domestic Violence, which I will refer to as DV from here on out, is not a big problem. A lot of people think that DV is a private problem. Some people think it can be solved by <i>the woman</i> just leaving. There are many misconceptions that I hope to alleviate with the knowledge I learn with through this class.

Also, it would be really cool is if anyone knows of any thing they have heard about DV or have any questions or information to write it in a comment or e-mail it to me! I would love to help do further research and answer questions and ask them as well!

Anyways, so now I am going to jump into a few questions I need to answer for the first section of my blog.

1) Why are you taking this class? Why DV?

The reason that I am taking this class is because I really want and need to learn more about DV. I plan on going on to grad school to attain my Masters in Social Work (MSW) and will most likely come across DV issues while I am counseling. I’ve learned about DV in other classes and have a basic knowledge, however I really want to get into the nit and gritty of the subject so I can be the most prepared Social Worker I can be!

2) What do you hope to learn and expect to learn in this class? What are your goals?

I am really hoping and expecting to learn how to counsel people with the different forms of DV well. I want to at least come out of this class with a better knowledge base of this social problem so I can easily identify signs of DV as well as the best ways to go about helping people in these situations. My goal is to take all this information and be prepared for a day when I might help someone in this situation.

Well, that is all for today. Kind of short. I will be writing tomorrow on the first few chapters of the book! So stay tuned for some good information!!

-Alex