Private sphere

Crenshaw’s article really made me aware of my own privilege as a heterosexual white woman who attends a private college. I do not have to face the same barriers and oppressive structures that minorities and those living in poverty face. The way in which Crenshaw describes how rape is a system of domination reminds me of the oppressive and immobilizing interconnected wires in Frye’s birdcage example. When Crenshaw examines these systems of domination, she exclaims that “lower economic class, race and gender structures continue to shape the particular ways that women of color experience poverty, relative to other groups.” Crenshaw’s statement highlights the importance of recognizing that women of color have a very different experience of poverty than say a white woman would. This is not only true when comparing women, but also true when comparing how both women and men experience poverty, racism, and gender very differently. In a beautifully phrased quote, Crenshaw explains that “Because women of color experience racism in ways not always the same as those experienced by men of color, and sexism in ways not always parallel to experiences of white women, dominant conceptions of antiracism and feminism are limited, even on their own terms”. While Lorde argues that it is important to embrace and accept each other’s differences, I think it is equally as important to recognize how these differences can shape who people become. I was surprised to find in Crenshaw’s article that immigration policies set in place in 1986, said that the marriage had to last for two years between a US citizen and non-citizen in order for the immigrant to gain citizenship. This policy forced immigrant women to stay in abusive marriages because they would not get a divorce out of fear or deportation.

         I found that this immigration policy could be connected to the same ideas Enloe expressed in her article when describing the “ideal, respectable woman”. Perhaps in the case of the immigration policy, 2 years of marriage is what is considered to be a “respectable” marriage. Immigrant women who marry and move to the US just to find that their spouse is abusive are often confined to the private sphere that Enloe discusses. This silencing and privatism in some cities is predicated upon the idea that “it was deemed improper for any ‘respectable’ woman to speak at a public meeting” (Enloe). Thus, societies definition of a "respectable” woman—one who remains silenced and confined to the private sphere—creates even more barriers and adds even more wires to Frye’s confining birdcage analogy. I think this concept of the private vs. public sphere and what women are “allowed” to do in the public sphere goes back to when women were predominantly housewives and lived in the private sphere, with little exposure to the public sphere. Enloe contributes the silencing of women caused by violence, to the mistaken idea that publicizing violence would be considered a “scandal”.

Although we have come a long way from containing domestic violence to the public sphere, society still has a long way to go in learning about the ways to prevent these incidents from even happening. In reading Zenith Universities approach to rape and sexual misconduct compared to Colgate’s approach to rape and sexual misconduct, I found Zenith Universities approach to be more hands on and proactive by holding the students accountable for stopping rape. Not just by talking about it, but acting. I think something that could be very helpful to preventing rape would be to have a volunteer program in which people who have. I feel like this would be very impactful because it makes the idea that sexual assault can and does happen more realistic. There is something about watching sexual harassment videos on a screen that makes it unrealistic because we are able to dissociate and separate ourselves from what is happening in the screen. Whereas, a one-on-one discussion with victims of sexual assault make the idea that rape happens more of a reality. Not only this, but to actual have a connection with a victim of sexual assault makes it more personal than watching someone you don’t even know on a screen. As someone who has friends who have experienced rape and sexual harassment, I am much more aware that this is not something that can just happen on a screen, but actually happens in real life all the time. Something that I also liked in Zenith’s approach was that it included information on what not to say to someone who has experienced rape.