Inequality

Romantic Implications

Spousal Abuse

Spousal abuse is allow­able where people believe that men are superior to women. Even if their lives are in jeopardy, wives fear letting authorities know. The women suffer in silence because they don't want to bring shame to their families. In the Asian family, the man is the head of the household. He dominates. Thus, no one is supposed to take action against his authority. And because spousal abuse has been a traditionally ac­cepted form of husband/wife interaction, many women have likely seen their mothers abused and view spousal abuse as a norm. Furthermore, part of the Asian wife's established duty is to please her husband. That is what it means to be a good wife. If there is a problem, she must change herself. She is also reluctant to bare the truth. To share family secrets runs counter to her cultural code. Asian Pacific wives are not the only immigrant victims who fear getting involved with the legal system to stop abuse. Latin American and Armenian women, too, are fearful. While they might at first call the police, they often back down when it comes to filing formal complaints.

· Muslim children are not allowed to touch members of the oppo­site sex. No relationship between males and females may even be implied.

· Asian children often experience cultural conflict when they are asked to hold hands with members of the opposite sex.

Mae has been teaching nursery school for years and has made the following discovery—the Japanese mothers in her school always have something sweet in their sons' sandwiches. Even if it is a fried-egg sandwich, there is jelly rolled in it. The same parents pack different lunches for their daughters—without the sweets. Mae thinks this is unfair. Japanese parents begin early on to demonstrate differences in expectations for boys and girls. Boys are treated differently—bet­ter—than girls, and that is accepted. Mrs. Wakematsu, mother of twins Peggy and Henry, exempli­fied the differences in treatment. Mrs. Wakematsu sweetened only her son's sandwich. She trimmed off Henry's bread crusts, but not Peggy's. She addressed her twins differently, too. She spoke to Peggy as if she were older than Henry, babying him more. Unlike Henry, Peggy was expected to be her mother's helper. If Henry left his sweater at school, Peggy had to go back and get it. Peggy had to carry her own and her brother's lunch box. When Mrs. Wakematsu came to pick up the children, Henry would often crash into her, grabbing her leg, whereas Peggy approached her mother more tentatively. Peggy never received the same affection and was never indulged like her brother. The Wakematsu family may be an extreme example. Nonethe­less, it demonstrates how parents teach children about gender roles. Naturally, as newcomers become more Americanized, expec­tations for women will change.

A strong son-preference exists in India. Male babies are given more food than female babies, and so males are more likely to survive. As they grow up, girls are less likely to be sent to school. Females often have little or no say in whom they will marry. Child marriage (under the legal age of 18) is frequent, especially in villages. A dowry is usually paid by the bride's family to the groom's family A serious social problem has arisen in India in recent years in the form of "dowry deaths," which occur when the bride's family agrees to pay an exorbitant dowry. If her family defaults on the payment, the groom's family mistreats the new wife. On some occasions, they burn her to death in a supposedly accidental kitchen fire (by drenching her with kero­sene). Ironically in recent decades, technological development has increased sexist practices. Once the medical equipment for amniocentesis became widely available, it was used to determine the sex of unborn children in India so that female fetuses could be aborted. As a result, many more male babies are born than are female babies.

· Ethnic groups do not all perceive gender roles in the same way. Some encourage equality of the sexes, and some do not.

· Unequal treatment of sexes begins early in life. Parents instill dif­ferences in subtle ways, including what they pack in their chil­dren's lunch boxes.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-11