On women's violence against women

So I had a class on young girls' violence against other girls today.  We have to write reflections for this class, and at some point while writing the reflection I basically had an instance of "fuck it, I'm going to write what I actually think."  As basically all the posts on this blog are some semblance of the former, I felt it was well suited to be posted here.  As I submitted it to my professor: [with names and class number eliminated for confidentiality]

Adam Hill – Reflection #4 –[class number]

            Reflecting on the readings and on the class presentation and discussion, I’ve concluded several ways to reduce young girls’ violence against other girls.  Change hinges on their ability to deconstruct their gender, visual culture, and most importantly, their values.

            As with pornography, the violence and cruelty enacted by, and against, women, depends on the gendered constructs of femininity and masculinity.  Most girls take these constructs for granted, and, as a result, are often subject to, and manipulated, by them.  As [anonymous] and [anonymous]’s presentation demonstrated, young girls have a wide range of diverse medias influencing how they think they should look and feel.  As such, in order to deconstruct the gendered paradigm of femininity, educators need to critically disassemble visual culture.

            Women assimilate the morality of weighing under 110 pounds and having a Victoria Secret stomach because there’s nothing stopping this assimilation.  They often have no reason, nor the tools, to critically assess the origins and implications of such suggestive media.  That’s why not a single woman in my North American Women’s History class last year ever mentioned women’s relationship with visual culture, because it’s almost universally taken for granted by women.  The earlier we provide young girls with the capacity to understand and criticize how institutions and the media act upon them, the better.

            And this deconstruction of gender and visual culture ultimately amounts to a deconstruction of values.  We need to ask young girls, “why do you need to look like that?”  “Why do you need to be sexualized?”  Women’s need to feel and look a certain way almost always rests on accumulated and consolidated values.  Therefore, if you truly want to eliminate the motivation and justification for women to abuse other women, they need to understand how these values affect how they feel and act.  Specifically, educators need to help young women identify the connection between what they see, think, hear and feel.  Women are currently awash in a superficial culture that values impossible ideals; their angst and feelings of inadequacy are completely justified given the circumstances.  In order to eliminate that angst and feeling of inadequacy, educators need to make it clear to those girls that these values and ideals are often truly impossible, and that therefore there’s nothing wrong if they can’t obtain them.

            As the readings demonstrated, young girls’ aggression against other girls is most often covert and indirect.  But as with bullying, if you conquer the motivations and justifications to enact harm, then there’s no reason to create complicated legislation and programs to punish bullying because it won’t happen.  If we as a society truly want to eliminate violence of women against women, it starts with the deconstruction of gender, visual culture, and values.

P.S.  Out of space, but to keep the Third Wave feminists happy, race [and class are] important too.