Dating Violence Themes

A few summers ago I took an elective class that focused on violence and women.  The main focus of the class was the impact of violence against women and how to prevent this phenomenon from occurring.  We had to read a book about saving adolescent women known as Reviving Ophelia.  I perceive this book as provided a good insight into why and how violence against women begins, it begins in adolescence and progresses into adulthood.  Some of the main themes in regards to why violence against women, including dating violence begins, were the following:

·         Girls want to be accepted by boys, so they behave according to the rules developed by boys.

·         Adolescents is a time when the “self” is being formed and if girls do not have a true understanding of who they are, they begin to lose their self and being to conform to what society deems feminine; quiet, nice, non-confrontational, and pleasing to men.

·         Girls with low self-esteem do not the skills to “fight” for her position and “real” self in the world.

·         Parental relationships (as I have stated in previous posts) is crucial to why girls accept dating violence.  Girls who witness her mother as being weak and docile towards aggressive/violent behavior, tend to adapt similar behaviors.

o   Fathers who are overbearing, have male chauvinistic beliefs, and who are sexist tend to have daughters who accept aggressive behaviors from boys/men (Pipher, 1994).

In the end, all of the above issues predisposes young ladies to violence because they are vulnerable and are not equipped to notice or stop a predator before the violence begins because they do not believe that the violence is abnormal.

 References

 

Pipher, M. (1994).  Reviving Ophelia: Saving the selves of adolescent girls. New York, NY:

     Random House.