Root Of Violence Against Women " Each year an estimated 2 to 4 million women in the United States are abused by their male partners. Many of them are severely assaulted, and thousands are killed" (thehotline.org). Statistics such as these are phenomenal. Domestic abuse does not only appear as physical harm but there is a lot of damage dealt with psychological abuse which is just as bad. Domestic violence is a widespread issue throughout the world, mostly due to fear created by the abuser. This problem is recognized worldwide and many theorists such as Nussbaum, Mackinnon and Dworkin have shared and organized their thoughts as to why such an uproar of violence has been rising within our society against women. In order to understand why violence against women is at such a high percentage we must first take a look at and understand what are the contributing influences and factors which play an active role in causing the abuser to inflict acts/thoughts/desires of violent intent onto a female. I shall analyze and go into depth of the theories coined by the names mentioned above as to what they think the root of violence is. But first we need to understand that violence against women does not only consist of physical/emotional damage, but also violation of their entitled rights as an individual human being. When we begin to treat a person as anything less or begin to expect more we have committed an act of violation on their human rights.

"Objectification entails making into a thing, treating as a thing, something that is not really a thing"(Nussbaum:9), this is a quote by Catharine Mackinnon in Nussbaums essay which I find to be a root cause of violence towards women. To objectify a female generally means to treat them as a thing (object) to fulfill the desire of the objectifier, I believe based on Mackinnon's studies that this is the first phase which initiates violence towards females. When we begin to view a female as an object rather than a human being we take away the moral respect which each person is entitled to. This dehumanizes the female and portrays the idea that they are not valued by who they are as a person, but by other factors such as their looks and materialistic belongings, the objectifier is only interested in quenching their desire and will do so by any means. The notion of objectification can be seen very clearly in sexual harassment, pornography and advertisements, The pornography entertainment, and advertising industries certainly have not helped this harmful image by the way in which they portray women. On the Internet you can see a variety of advertisements of women. Not only is there an unreal standard of beauty often being projected, but many of these ads place women in positions making them appear not as women but as literal objects. By transforming women’s bodies into things, men begin to view women as such. " All women live in sexual objectification the way fish live in water" (Nussbaum:5). Mackinnon believes women derive their reason of existence/purpose from their objectification, not knowingly because it cuts them off from full self expression/determination. Women become less than human in these films, adhering to all sorts of domination and abuse. MacKinnon discusses how pornography “constructs women as things for sexual use and constructs its viewer to desperately want women, to desperately want possession and cruelty and dehumanization.” (Nussbaum:16) Viewing pornography with women being degraded, humiliated, and abused and most importantly not resisting, Men begin to believe that they are allowed to act in these manners in real life. This creates an unclear sense of reality and creates a false illusion of women’s sexuality depicting that it is ok to degrade a female in such sexual acts by not considering that they too are involved as a person not as an object. Mackinnon mentions seven ways an individual can treat a female as an object/thing, it doesn't mean these are the only methods to objectify someone, but in any presented scenario these can be seen.1) Instrumentality-person is treated as a tool of the objectifiers use this is broadly seen in pornography. 2)Denial of autonomy- by treating the individual as one who does not have control over their free will, men manipulate women into doing as they wish by degrading the females self determination and goals. 3) Intertness- the female lacks activity which can be seen as them being disposable, this links to the fourth concept of 4) Fungibility- the female is replaceable with others of matching/improved qualities. 5) Violability- females are degraded into objects which can have their wills of self expression broken. 6) Ownership- this can mostly be seen in the institutional concept of marriage and the symbol of ownership being the wedding ring. and finally 7) Denial of Subjectivity- the feelings and thoughts of the females are not considered in situations. In order to avoid approaches of objectification and violation towards females we must carefully trend how we deal with these 7 concepts, a look at the larger picture of the situation is needed to chop down the roots of violence which I have derived from Mackinnon's research. Another theorist who agrees with the ideas of Catharine Mackinnon is the radical feminist Andrea Dworkin. Dworkin believes the root of violence against women not only derives from the results of objectification, but from the entire hierarchy system our society is built upon. " lack of respect that much lovemaking displays is not, a feature of sexuality itself; it is created by asymmetrical structures of power"(Nussbaum:11). What Dworkin is trying to say here is that respect is not degraded in acts of sexual desires itself, but instead it is lost from difference in misplaced control and power of the situation. We refer back to the 7 ways to objectify or treat a person as a thing coined by Mackinnon and direct ourselves to 6)ownership and 2)denial of autonomy, these two objectifications arise soon as the institution of marriage comes into the equation. Once we enter this transition the male encouraged by the institution is pushed to assert his dominance sexually. And if we gaze back into the past around the 1800-1900s the mentality was very similar, the males always portrayed the dominance and control over their relation with the female, who had little autonomy and subjectivity in matters which involved both genders.

It would seem that within the society we live in now, thanks to the feminist researchers who have wrestled with the concept of the true roots of violence against women, we have made much progress in understanding why men objectify women and tend to treat them as objects, more or less than human beings. But a clear solution to the problems which are created is far from being a solid answer. And for those reasons we cannot help but continue to question, why are we so different at the same time how can our desires be so similar.