Women in India

It is quite clear that women have little to no respect and rights in India. Whether this be because of religion, social standing, politics or whatever, this is an act of cruelty. In the article about if women dress sexy, then men will rape them is awful. The idea that being gang raped is suddenly being turned around on women is disturbing. It shows how terribly women are treated in this country. In this article, men believe that women should be home after 7pm, because if they are out later then that, they are "asking" to get raped. The men interviewed believed that if women get raped, some of the blame should be put on the women because of how they dress or how late they are staying out. Language plays a big role in this. One man said that all men will talk rudely to women, and if women are complacent and allow men to be rude to them, they wont get raped. However, if a women stands up for herself to a man, she is giving the man a reason to rape her. Now, women can of course exhibit more precaution (not walking around in the middle of the night alone), but the idea that they give men a reason to rape is ignorant and sick. 

Gender Roles

Gender equality has become one of the most pressing social hot-topics of the past 2 centuries. A while back, women had little to no rights at all. They weren't allowed to work, vote, or even be politically involved. Obviously after too long a time, America has grown out of that barbaric stage and has started to treat women with the respect they deserve. Women now legally hold nearly every right as a man would (voting right, can run for political positions, etc). But we can see a social (not legal) divide between what man can do and women cant, or in some cases vise-versa. Here are some important questions;

1. Which aspects of gender roles are true everywhere?

This is a difficult question to answer. Everywhere in the world we see a difference in gender roles, but it is often very different. As a whole, women are viewed as the stay-at-home figure of the family. They take care of the children and are the nurturers. This belief dates back to early points in our history. Though many don't believe this is the only role for women (myself included), this seems to be the biggest difference in gender roles.

2. Which are specific to your culture?

In my culture, the biggest difference is the way in which men talk to men, and how women talk to women. I talk to my father much differently then i would talk to my mother, and i would talk to my friend Shannon much differently then I would talk to my friend Alec. 

3. How does language reinforce or create or thwart those gender roles?

Language is used to persuade or sway certain genders. Language through advertisements and television is used to reach an audience, and often those audience are "male or female" demographics. Language is a great way to articulate thoughts and feelings in a beautiful way, and no violence needs to come from it. Without language gender roles would not be able to argued and discussed. Language has been known to divide people, but through that division a union follows that no other medium could produce. 

My shibboleth

Question 3: I am going to speak on the idea of people leaving others out because of the way they pronounce or use a shibboleth.

I believe a linguistic password is used to separate people. Of course one can make the argument that people are grouping together to do this and the group of people that know the linguistic password are celebrating their similarities. Some of the worst and most terrible things were done by a large group of people (Inquisition, nazi regime, socialist movement in Russia, etc.). The forming of groups of people with the intent to exclude and hate another group of people are extremely dangerous. Religion is the prime example, but I'll save that for another discussion. I believe if people only wanted to emphasize similarities, they would extend that idea to EVERYONE. When the emphasize of differences out ways that of the other, bad and dangerous actions have historically been the outcome.