Third or Fourth I forget

The readings for this week talked about violent abuse of women.  Rape, beatings by husbands, molestations, all of these things go on in the thousands every day but we do no seemed shocked at how sexist these crimes are. Crimes that target a certain race or ethnicity seem to be a bigger deal and less accepted (not that domestic violence is accepted everywhere) than crimes that are gender related. In the article about defining how feminists define peace by Brigit Brock-Utne she makes a point that while we usually look at a domestic violence case on its own as one event we need to look at the bigger picture. There are thousands of women who get raped, are the target of domestic violence or are in some other gender related crime that is not just a problem between individuals but a structural problem as well. Sexism is a way for men to keep power, crime and violence is about power and crime against women is no acceptation.  In the readings for this week I also found the way that women and men view conflict or violence to be particularly interesting. In the reading titled Bodily Harm by Suzanne E.Hatty she states that men view violence as a "means to assert or maintain control over others" while women view it as "a failure of self-control". In her article Brock-Utne also brings up the point that women more than men are against the idea of going to war.  I am not saying that if women had more say in government and war making decisions that this world would be 100% peaceful but I think we would be closer.