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    Summay The Longest War

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    The document summarizes Rebecca Solnit's article "The Longest War" which argues that violence against women is widely overlooked in society. Solnit claims that societal expectations of masculinity often cause men to feel entitled and make decisions over women's lives, resulting in harassment and violence when their authority is challenged. She provides many examples of violence committed by men against women from individual cases to government policies restricting women's rights. The document also compares Solnit's arguments to Michael Kimmel's article "Bros Before Hos" on cultures that enable gender-based violence.

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    Summay The Longest War

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    616 views3 pages
    The document summarizes Rebecca Solnit's article "The Longest War" which argues that violence against women is widely overlooked in society. Solnit claims that societal expectations of masculinity often cause men to feel entitled and make decisions over women's lives, resulting in harassment and violence when their authority is challenged. She provides many examples of violence committed by men against women from individual cases to government policies restricting women's rights. The document also compares Solnit's arguments to Michael Kimmel's article "Bros Before Hos" on cultures that enable gender-based violence.

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    The document summarizes Rebecca Solnit's article "The Longest War" which argues that violence against women is widely overlooked in society. Solnit claims that societal expectations of masculinity often cause men to feel entitled and make decisions over women's lives, resulting in harassment and violence when their authority is challenged. She provides many examples of violence committed by men against women from individual cases to government policies restricting women's rights. The document also compares Solnit's arguments to Michael Kimmel's article "Bros Before Hos" on cultures that enable gender-based violence.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    616 views3 pages

    Summay The Longest War

    Uploaded by

    api-429292162
    The document summarizes Rebecca Solnit's article "The Longest War" which argues that violence against women is widely overlooked in society. Solnit claims that societal expectations of masculinity often cause men to feel entitled and make decisions over women's lives, resulting in harassment and violence when their authority is challenged. She provides many examples of violence committed by men against women from individual cases to government policies restricting women's rights. The document also compares Solnit's arguments to Michael Kimmel's article "Bros Before Hos" on cultures that enable gender-based violence.

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    Mena 1

    Yesica S. Mena

    Instructor Kat King

    English 1A

    September 9, 2018

    Summary and Response #2: “The Longest War”

    In “The Longest War”, the author Rebecca Solnit states that even though we see cases

    happening every day and everywhere, the problem of violence against women is an issue broadly

    overlooked, and that society in general does not face the problem and its roots. Solnit claims that

    to start talking about the changes we must make, we necessarily have to talk about the idea that

    society imposes on masculinity. Solnit states “Violence doesn’t have a race, a class, a religion, or

    a nationality, but it does have a gender” (1). The author sustains her statements by listing several

    cases of violence against women of all types and at all levels but with one common denominator:

    The perpetrator is always a man. She recounts all the excuses that are used to justify all those

    acts of violence, that in many cases results in death, and the excuses range from the most

    common as mental problems to social resentments; however, do not contemplate that both sexes

    are exposed to the same problematic, but is the man who mostly exercises violence. Solnit

    explains that many men are violent because they feel entitled to make decisions over others’

    lives. She argues that cases like that of a woman who was stabbed by a man when rejected by her

    are due to the fact that the man, in his authoritarianism, feels he has the right to decide if she

    lives or dies. The author states that this is a phenomenon present at all levels and in all fields like

    the case of a famous singer whose husband declares, “Yeah I hit her, but I didn’t hit her more

    than the average guy beats his wife” (4). Solnit presents the double standard that is observed in
    Mena 2

    society because in many occasions the victim is instructed how to avoid or survive the abuse, but

    the perpetrator is not instructed how not to be violent. The author expresses that many times men

    feel threatened by the woman who asserts her rights or competes with them, and that this often

    triggers threats or violent reactions such as the assassination attempt of the current Pakistani

    activist Malala Yousafzai. Solnit describes how harassment, violence and the desire to dominate

    women is not only seen on a daily basis or in cyberspace, but also escalated and entrenched in

    the government, which, instead of protecting women’s rights is finding new ways to submit them

    to the decisions of men. As an example, the author points out the efforts of some government

    representatives to obstruct access to birth control or abortion, even if the pregnancy is a result of

    a rape, in order to exercise as much control as possible over the right of women to make their

    own decisions. Solnit adds that many women are also protagonists of violent acts, but the

    statistics show that men are by far who perpetrates the majority of these violent acts. The author

    concludes by reflecting on how the idea of what it is to be a man is transmitted to the children.

    Solnit ends by saying that our society, in contrast with other, is failing to recognize that the

    problem of violence against women is a matter of violation of human rights.

    Solnit’s article does support and go further on the argument exposed on the essay “Bros

    Before Hos: The Guy Code” by Michael Kimmel. The author presents an argument that agrees

    with one of the cultures supporting the “Guy Code” presented by Kimmel, the culture of

    entitlement. Solnit describes how a man unleashes his violence when he feels that his authority is

    challenged and he wants to decide about the life of the woman as if she were his property.

    Likewise, Kimmel explains that the culture of feeling entitled in the masculine world makes man

    feel superior, and therefore he shows possessive behaviors. In both cases, the authors say that

    man loses empathy with the suffering of his victim and violence is the result of wanting to
    Mena 3

    impose his will. Solnit also expands upon the culture of protection exposed in Kimmel's article

    when it refers to the positions of some sectors of government that protect the rights of aggressors

    over the rights of their victims. In "Bros Before Hos", the author refers to the protection

    displayed by the circle close to the abuser, but Solnit extends this phenomenon to government

    representatives who guarantee paternal rights to rapists over the children resulting from their

    crimes.

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