A general theme in the readings assigned this week was that the differences in how men and women are raised is what creates the disparities and what facilitates sexual violence. In other words, as Susan Griffen stated, rapists are made and not born. One example of this can be found in Susan Griffen’s “Rape: The All-American Crime,” which states, “To be submissive is to defer to masculine strength; is to lack muscular development or any interest in defending oneself; is to let doors be opened, to have one's arm held when crossing the street. To be feminine is to wear shoes which make it difficult to run; skirts which inhibit one's stride; underclothes which inhibit the circulation" (324). This quotation exemplifies the idea that people are raised with typical societal gender roles taught to them repeatedly. Men are expected to be dominant and masculine, while women are expected to be feminine and fragile. This gives men the right to be overly domineering toward women, making them believe that they have total control over them, creating a breeding ground for sexual aggression to take place. This directly shows the correlation between sexual aggression and societal gender roles.…show more content… In Del Martins “A Letter from a Battered Wife” it states, “I have suffered physical and emotional battering and spiritual rape because the social structure of my world says I cannot do anything about a man who wants to beat me...” (450). In our society, men are given every power over women. Men are the ‘head of the house’ and women have no choice but to listen. In our society, women are expected to be put up with the physical and emotional abuse from their spouse. Women cannot do anything about the abuse they endure because society expects it, and society expects women to put up with it because of the societal expectations of the power dynamic between a man and a
