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OUR BODIES, OURSELVES READING ROOM
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Notes

1. Surgeon General, U.S., 1992.
2. U.S. Department of Justice, Uniform Crime Reports for the U.S. (Washington, DC: 1996).
3. National Victims Center and Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, Rape In America: A Report to the Nation
(Arlington, VA: National Victims Center, 1992). Available from National Victims Center, 2111 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22201; (703) 276-2880.
4. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, A Report on the 1988 National Survey of Shelters for the Homeless (Washington, DC: Office of Policy Development and Research, 1989).
5. Many studies have been published that present various estimates of the extent of child sexual abuse. These data can only be estimates because of the fact that many adult women do not remember being sexually abused or do not define childhood incidents as sexual abuse.
6. Mary Ann Allard, Randy Albelda, Mary Ellen Colten, and Carol Cosenza, In Harm's Way? Domestic Violence, AFDC Receipt, and Welfare Reform in Massachusetts (Boston: University of Massachusetts, 1997); Jody Raphael and Richard Tolman, Trapped By Poverty Trapped By Abuse (Chicago: The Taylor Institute, 1997).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Toward an Understanding of Male Violence Against Women

Race, Class, and Violence Against Women

Blaming the Victim

Sexual Harassment

Domestic Violence

Sexual Assault

Incest and Sexual Abuse of Children

The Sex Industry

Defending Ourselves Against Violence

Ending Violence Against Women

Notes

Resources

7. Mary P. Koss et al. No Safe Haven: Male Violence Against Women at Home, At Work, and in the Community (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1994).
8. Koss, No Safe Haven.
9. Hughes and Sandler, U.S. Merit Protection Board, as cited in "Facts About Sexual Harassment," U.S. Department of Labor, 1988.
10. Nan Stein, Nancy L. Marshall, and Linda R. Tropp, Secrets in Public: Sexual Harassment in Our Schools--A Report on the Results of a Seventeen Magazine Survey (Wellesley, MA: Center for Research on Women, 1993).
11. Nan Stein, "No Laughing Matter: Sexual Harassment in K-12 Schools," in Emilie Buchwald, ed., Transforming a Rape Culture (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1993).
12. National Center on Women and Family Law, The Effects of Woman Abuse on Children: Psychological and Legal Authority (New York, 1994). The National Center on Women and Family Law is defunct; however, their publications are available from the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York: (212) 925- 6635.
13. For a detailed review and analysis of the literature on the impact of domestic violence on children, see Governor's Commission on Domestic Violence, The Children of Domestic Violence: A Report of the Governor's Commission on Domestic Violence of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Boston: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1996).
14. Adapted from Domestic Violence: The Facts, by Battered Women Fighting Back!, Inc. (Currently known as Peace At Home, Inc.) (Boston: BWFB, 1995).
15. Koss, No Safe Haven.
16. The Project on the Status and Education of Women, The Problem of Rape on Campus. (Washington, DC: 1978).
17. Adapted from Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Supporting Survivors of Sexual Assault: A Journey to Justice, Health, and Healing (Boston: Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 1997).
18. Andrea J. Sedlak and Diane D. Broadhurst, Executive Summary of the Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996).
19. Congressional Quarterly Researcher, Washington, DC, 1991.
20. Frank W. Putnam, Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorder (New York: Guilford Press, 1989).
21. See Linda Meyer Williams, "Recall of Childhood Trauma: A Prospective Study of Women's Memories of Child Sexual Abuse," Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 62, no. 6 (1994): 1167-176.

MORE NOTES

* Thanks also to the following for their help with the 1998 version of this chapter: Holly Curtis, Bonnie Gage, Marcia Gordon, Jackson Katz, Margaret Lazarus, Liza Rankow, Beth Richie, Vivianne Soto. Over the years since 1969, the following people have contributed to the many versions of this chapter: Gene Bishop, Andrea Fischgrund, Roxanne Hynek, Janet Jones, Freada Klein, Rachel Lanzerotti, Margaret Lazarus, Carol McEldowney, Judy Norsigian. sdThis chapter focuses on male violence toward women, although we know that female-to-male and female-to-female violence happens as well. Men who are survivors have begun to speak out about violence that happened to them as children by men as well as women. Lesbians have begun to look at and address the extent of violence within lesbian relationships. (See chapter 10, Relationships with Women.)

* We do not address the subject of pornography primarily because we disagree with one another and have not come to any clear positions on some crucial aspects of this issue. However, we all abhor all pornography that we find violent or degrading to women. We believe it important to protest the existence of this type of pornography, though we would not seek government censorship. pspprotest the fact that a huge pornography industry is making billions of dollars by objectifying, degrading, and dehumanizing women, children, and sometimes men. The work women are doing to expose this industry is central to our understanding of violence against women in cultures throughout the world.

We recognize that some of us will find offensive what others view as erotica, and vice versa, and that not all pornography represents "violence against women." But this need not keep us from speaking out against what we believe is degrading to women and, ultimately, to everyone.

* The problem of accessibility of battered women's services for younger adult women with disabilities as well as elders is one that the battered women's community is beginning to address. Constructing barrier-free shelters and renovating existing shelters so that they are fully accessible to all battered women and their children is an important part of the effort to respond comprehensively to violence against women.

* Since each state law is slightly different, contact a battered women's organization in your state to learn exactly how your state law works (see Resource section).

* Adapted from How to Start a Rape Crisis Center (1972) by the Rape Crisis Center of Washington, DC.

* Each state defines incest differently. In this chapter we discuss social attitudes and definitions regarding incest and the sexual abuse of children, not legal ones.

* See especially Judith Herman's classic work, Father-Daughter Incest (Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press, 1981).

* Only about 5% of STDs in the United States is spread by prostitutes.

ddAn example of such groups is COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) in San Francisco. For more information, contact the National Task Force on Prostitution, P.O. Box 26354, San Francisco, CA 94126. Ask for the newsletter, Coyote Howls.

* See, for instance, Sex Work, edited by Frederique Delacoste and Priscilla Alexander (Pittsburgh: Cleis Press, 1987).

* These occur when men marry women for their dowries and then kill them, as still happens in India.

 

 

Copyright © 1984, 1992, 1998 by the Boston Women's Health Book Collective. All rights reserved. Published by Touchstone, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.

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