Arvind Mohanram
September 15th, 2010
FD1
It Depends
Between adolescence and menopause, women experience trauma in adjusting to their gender roles. I would like to illustrate this by comparing how women are perceived in a developing country like India and a developed nation like the US. [Thesis] It depends on many factors and it cannot be generalized -- the statement is a hyperbole [Thesis].
People in rural villages of India view guys as asset and girls as a liability. Women are oppressed and the society believes in gender roles. Women in India go through a trauma in at least some part of their lives. The degree of trauma depends on the education and financial status of the family. Girls born in villages are likely to face more hardship than those born in large cities because of persistence of female infanticide in some villages. In a survey conducted between 1989-1992 in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu (South India) for over period of 4 years, 72 % of ‘disappearing daughters’ in 12 villages, were due to female infanticide (George, Abel, and Miller 1153). A girl child means that the parents have additional responsibility of preparing her for marriage. This is too much of a burden on families that struggle to make a living, so females are seen a liability in villages.
When it comes to marriage, the situation is similar whether the girl lives in a village in South India or large city like Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Arranged marriages are typical in both villages and large cities. The would-be husband and/or husband’s family demands dowry -- a compensation in form of money/gold/land for marrying the girl. Even though the government has put a legal ban on it, orthodox families still practice dowry. After marriage, she become totally vulnerable in a new role as a wife -- separated from her parents, totally dependent on this unknown person called as a husband. Examples of mother-in-law harassing bride are not uncommon. The classic bollywood movie (Lajja) shows the story of four women who undergo different forms of exploitation. The cruelty includes domestic violence, sexual abuse, harassment and betrayal. Deepa Mehta’s movie (Water) focuses on life of a widow in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh who is forced to prostitution and struggling for a new identity. As an Indian myself, I see the portrayal in both the movies to be true and could be happening somewhere. So, there is convincing evidence to say that women in India do go through trauma.
On the other hand, when I first came to the US, I found that girls are more assertive and have much more freedom than in India. Take the case of my colleagues- Lanny and Terry, who were born and raised in the US, they thinks that ‘trauma’ is a strong word to describe the different roles of females in their life. They say that transition into a new role (e.g. motherhood) can be stressful for the first time, because of uncertainty, but would never call it traumatic. The women who go through real trauma may be < 5% according to them. Instead, they suggested using a better word for trauma, like ‘confusion’ or ‘identity crises’ for such situations between adolescences and menopause. In addition, in one of the more recent essays uploaded in class blog titled ‘To Choose Your Words Wisely”, Marcie says that change in gender role gave herself and her sister a chance to embrace the new found freedom. This clearly shows that perception of female role is disparate and changes with their upbringing (e.g. origin from India or US).
In the book “Saplings in the Storm”, psychologist Mary Pipher (413) is convinced that women go through trauma; however the premises on which she argues is faulty. I think her background as therapist cause her judgment to be biased. She might be showing the logical fallacy of Hasty Generalization. I would be interested to hear what Mary Pipher says if she spend time in Indian villages. So, the probability of women in the US going through trauma is very less.
However, my classmate Stephen Sylvester relates to the statement that women do go through a trauma; by giving example of his personal life experiences with his sister. Although, Stephen describes trauma to be “.. many things, such as serious injury or shock to the body, from violence or an accident. Also can be emotional wound from feelings like love, hate, happiness, and also sadness that can have tremendous lasting damage to the mental development of a person”. I was unable to correlate the experience described in his essay to be traumatic.
In conclusion, I am convinced that trauma in women is related to their cultural, social and family background in the society. In India it is obvious that women in some parts of the country experience trauma. In the US, women are more likely to embrace the various roles life throws at them. They do not feel traumatized. Female perception changes with culture and the argument: women experience trauma in adjusting to their gender roles between adolescence and menopause, is an overstatement and cannot be generalized.
Works Cited
Kagawa, Marcie. "Sample – Paper #1 (M. Kagawa)" Blog entry. 16 July 2008. English 215W. 10 Sep 2010 [http://eng215kcc.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/sample-paper-1-m-kagawa/].
Lajja. Dir. Rajkumar Santoshi. Perf. Manisha Koirala, Rekha, Madhuri Dixit, Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor, Ajay Devgan, Mahima Chaudhry. Santoshi, 2001. DVD.
Pipher, Mary. “Saplings in the Storm.” Dialogues: An Argument Rhetoric and Reader. 5th edition. Eds. Gary Goshgarian and Kathleen Krueger. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2006. 411-417.
Sabu George, Abel Rajaratnam and Miller B.D, "Female Infanticide in Rural South India." Economic and Political Weekly 27.22 (1992): 1153-56. Web. 9 Sep. 2010 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/4398446].
Sylvester, Stephen. “RD1: Changes in the Tides." Blog entry. 6 Sep. 2010. English 215W. 10 Sep. 2010 [http://stephensylvester79.blogspot.com/].
Sylvester, Stephen. “What is Trauma?” Online posting. 29 Aug. 2010. Laulima Discussion. 09 Sept 2010. [https://laulima.hawaii.edu/].
Water. Dir. Deepa Mehta. Perf. Lisa Ray, John Abraham, Sarala Kariyawasam, Seema Biswas, Manorama. Deepa Mehta, 2004. DVD.
Williams, Lanny and Plowman, Terry. Personal interviews. 9 Sep. 2010.
Log of Completed Activities
_L_ Aug. 23M- First Day of Instruction. Read the welcome message, which includes instructions on how to navigate our class blog. Next, log in to our Laulima discussion forum and your hawaii.edu mailbox. Become familiar with these instructional media. Carefully review the information in our class blog, especially the schedule and catalog. (Confirmation reply required.)
_L_ Aug. 24t- Intro to Paper #1. Read the “Guidelines for Paper #1” by midnight. (Confirmation reply required.)
_L_ Aug. 25W- Laulima Discussion: Who Am I? Post your response by midnight. Possible topics: your academic and career goals; your favorite pastime; favorite book, movie, song; favorite physical activity or sport; favorite quote; personal philosophy on the purpose of life; your personal thoughts on why it’s important to become an excellent writer; favorite food or restaurant; favorite vacation destination; etc.
__L_ Aug. 27F- Complete readings for Paper #1 by midnight. (Confirmation reply required.)
_L_ Aug. 30M- Set up your blog for class papers. After you’re done, go to Laulima. In the forum “My Blog Is Ready,” post the URL for your blog and invite classmates to visit and post comments.
_L_ Sep. 2T- Laulima Discussion: What Is “Trauma”? One definition or many different definitions? Post your response by midnight.
_L_Sep. 7t- Laulima Discussion: Causes & Solutions: What causes gender role trauma? What’s the solution? Assume that there is more than one cause or solution. Post your response by midnight. [10 pts]
_X_Sep. 10F- RD1 (Review Draft #1) due [50 pts] Review the guidelines. (Confirmation reply required.)
_X_Sep. 13M- RD1 evaluations due. [50 pts] Review the guidelines and the introduction to reviewing drafts. (Confirmation reply required.)
_X_Sep. 16T- FD1 (Final Draft #1) due [100 pts] Review the guidelines. (Confirmation reply required.)
