Let's Get Our Priorities Straight

Feminized respectability should not be a top priority when it comes to wrongs against women. It should not even be a factor in the domain of violence and other wrongs committed against women. What does a woman speaking out about being a victim of violence have to do with her amount of respectablity? Even if it is somehow connected, why is the respectablity prioritized over the fact that the woman has had a crime committed against her? Society really needs to change its idea of feminized repesctabiity if it is so limited that a woman cannot even speak out against violence. Feminized respectability applies especially to the rape case. Some people view rape victims as less pure than they were before they were raped and consequently less respectable.

The idea of feminized respectablity is very much present today. Women have to act a certain way, or they do not respect themselves. They have to dress a certain way, or they do not respect themselves. Also, they risk being disrespected by men and other women. Feminized respectablity needs to be broken down and discarded because it creates this cage that women have to stay in because if they step out of the cage they become less of a good woman.

What should be prioritized is domestic violence. The story in Crenshaw's piece about the Latina woman who was refused by several shelters for battered women simply because she could not speak English demonstrates the fact that domestic violence is not a top priority in society. The workers at the shelter thought it more important that the woman not be isolated than that she be safe from her violent partner. In a right world, this would never happen or even make sense to anyone.

On a separate note, Gloria Steinem's piece about supremacy crimes really shocked me. Honestly, what I have been surrounded by is the belief that most of the crimes that Steinem mentioned are committed by black men. People seem to expect violence from black men. I do not hear about the fact that most serial killers and school shooters are white men. It is interesting to have a myth that I hear about debunked by Steinem.