PEER EDIT of final paper—you must have prepared the complete first draft of your essay (minimum 1000 words), for editing by classmates. Failure to participate means your essay will neither be accepted nor graded.******** Remember to upload your draft of your paper to Turnitin. Use Turnitin to check and fix your citations.for this I need to use at leased five articles for my quotations and I will be talking about gender. (men)1.
The essays in unit 3, “How Did You Get Here? How do We Know What is Social and What is Biological in Human ‘Nature’?” (readings from weeks 5, 6, 7 and 8) address questions relating to gender.The articles examine humans and animals and their being guided by instinct or culture, whether violence is biologically programmed or learned, the links between masculinity and violence, the characteristics or features of masculinity or femininity as being innate or learned, and, relations between men and women. Consider the ideas of the course readings, and choose an idea from one reading as a focus for research. What, for you, was the most significant issue raised by one of the readings, and explain why do you think others should be concerned about it?
“A woman’s honor tumbles down on all of us in the family, but a man’s honor is only his”: young women’s experiences of patriarchal chastity norms “A woman’s honor tumbles down on all of us in the family, but a man’s honor is only his”: young women’s experiences of patriarchal chastity norms Monica Christianson, Åsa Teiler and Carola Eriksson Department of Nursing, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden ABSTRACT Purpose: In this qualitative study we explored how young women living in Sweden with ethnic and cultural roots in the Middle East and East Africa comply with or resist so-called honour norms and how they perceive that these norms affect their living conditions. Method: In depth interviews were performed with 14 young women. The majority were between 21 and 32 years of age with a mean age of 24. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and a grounded theory approach was used. To reflect the diversity in women’s experiences, the grounded theory approach was conducted from a feminist perspective to transform women’s personal narratives to a larger social context. Results: We analysed the core category “Honorable women in becoming” as the central emerging phenomenon related to categories about structural and individual control of women, the women’s adjustment and resistance, and the continuum of severe consequences and violence that they experienced in their struggle for autonomy. Conclusion: Simone de Beauvoir’s feminist theory about women as “the other” was an inspiration and gave us valuable input to highlight women’s experiences and situations from a perspective of gender, power, and oppression. ARTICLE HISTORY Received xxxx Accepted 4 December 2020 KEYWORDS Gender; grounded theory study; honour; women’s health; violence against women Introduction In many collective patrilineal societies, the norms and ideals surrounding women’s appearances, behaviours, and life choices are strongly associated with the entire family’s morals and honour (Cihangir, 2012; Cooney, 2014; King, 2008; Leung & Cohen, 2011). In the Middle East, gossip, scandal, and shame are cultural dimen- sions aimed at controlling and dominating women, particularly daughters and wives (Awwad, 2001). Surveys from Egypt, Palestine, Israel, and Tunisia indi- cated that the concept of family honour is centred on the notion that it is especially women’s responsibility, to behave in a way that protects the honour of the family (Douki et al., 2003; Rodriguez Mosquera, 2013). Interviews with young women from racially/ethnically minoritized communities in Sweden indicate that negative reputation brings shame both to the young women and their families (Cinthio, 2015). In this empirical interview study, we have examined the exis- tence and experience of honour norms among young women living in Sweden from ethnically and cultu- rally diverse backgrounds. Honour codes (either as social practices or ideolo- gical constructs) prescribe how both men and women should maintain the social reputation of their family; however, the premises are dramatically different for men and women (Fildis, 2013). According to King (2008), being able to protect the well-being of the family, being virile, and upholding authority within the family are core attributes associated with the “masculine” honour code. The “masculine” honour code can be considered to benefit men because it leaves room for men to behave autonomously having the freedom to do what they want (Cihangir, 2012), and, at the same time, take power away from women. The “feminine” honour code emphasizes values such as chastity and conformity. The central ideal in the “feminine” honour code is sexual purity, modesty, decorum in dress, and discretion in social relations, particularly with men, or inhibit choice of marriage partner (Sen, 2005). This code is an important indica- tor of the status of the family’s honour, so protection of the family on the part of men extends beyond physical and economic protection as control of a female’s sexual behaviour is also the responsibility of the male family members (Cihangir, 2012). Not being able to live up to such responsibility translates into a perceived loss of masculinity for male relatives and this may result in very severe punishments for women (Cihangir, 2012; Fildis, 2013). Consequently, young women can be controlled both at home and socially where male dominance as well as female subordination is standard (Schlytter & Linell, 2010). However, some family members may oppose these CONTACT Monica Christianson
[email protected] Department of Nursing, Umeå University, SE-901 85 Umeå, Sweden This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF QUALITATIVE STUDIES ON HEALTH AND WELL-BEING 2020, VOL. 16, 1862480 https://doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2020.1862480 © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. http://www.tandfonline.com https://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1080/17482631.2020.1862480&domain=pdf&date_stamp=2020-12-22 norms, which can be very risky. Family honour is threatened if a female family member is perceived to violate the “feminine” honour code (Schlytter & Linell, 2010). Restoring the honour of the family often results in extreme corrections, so-called honour violence, that can include social isolation, psychological and physical mistreatment, domestic violence, forced suicide, forced marriage, marital rape, and even murder (i.e., honour killings) (Awwad, 2001; Cooney, 2014; King, 2008; Sen, 2005; Simga, 2019). The UN states that honour violence represents a form of systematic institutionalized mis- ogyny that includes the full spectrum of discrimination and violence committed against women involving power, control, domination, and intimidation to pre- serve patriarchy (United Nations, 2014). Honour violence is described as actions that are performed within the family where it is common for these actions to be sanctioned collectively and in some cases to be socially as well as legally acceptable (Awwad, 2001). Sen (2005, p. 50) argues that there are some key features that characterize honour violence: gender relations that problematize and control women’s (sexual) behaviours, the role of women in monitoring other women’s behaviours, collective decisions regarding punishment, the potential for women’s participation in killings, the ability to reclaim honour through enforced compliance or killings, and state sanction of honour killings. Honour violence exists all over the world (Kulczycki & Windle, 2011; Sen, 2005). It is a global problem, and the arrays of the violence can be regionally distinct, but the causes emanate from gender-based and socio- economic inequalities (Bhanbhro et al., 2016). Various studies have found that women may “dishonor” their family by being perceived to have violated female chastity norms, including loss of virginity before mar- riage, infidelity after marriage (Baker et al., 1999; Cooney, 2014; Faqir, 2001) or interacting socially with men outside the family (Akpinar, 2003), and acting autonomously by, for example, gaining an education, securing a job, leaving an abusive husband or dressing how she wants (Hasan, 2002; Ince et al., 2009). In 2000, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimated that 5000 women were victims of honour killings each year (United Nations Population Fund, 2000), but as honour based violence is wider than honour killing, this is a silent and hidden problem that mostly hits women, and the real numbers may be much higher (Awwad, 2001). According to statistics from the Honour Based Violence Awareness Network (http://hbv-awareness.com/statistics-data/) the true prevalence of honour based violence at the current time is unknown and very difficult to estimate. In the Middle East and North Africa, victims of honour kill- ings are mostly young women murdered by a man to whom they are related, but very little is known about the incidence, correlates, and predictors of honour killings in the region, and much more research on family dynamics is required (Kulczycki & Windle, 2011). Research on honour codes has often been focused on the Mediterranean, Middle East, and South Asian countries, but Rodriguez Mosquera et al. (2002) found in their cross-cultural study of Spanish and Dutch youth that Mediterranean conceptualization of hon- our is also present in Northern Europe even if the expressions are less visible. In Western Europe today, there has been a transformation of motives where to live one’s life and to make one’s own life choices can be the motive (Grzyb, 2016). In Sweden, the extent of so-called honour violence is largely unknown, although research is pointing to a widespread problem where women who are experi- encing honour violence are at higher risk for both physical as well as mental health problems (The National Centre for Knowledge on Men’s Violence Against Women, 2011). The policy of honour based violence in Sweden reflects the UN definition and academic frameworks on honour and gender norms, where honour based violence can be described as norms built on strong patriarchal and heteronorma- tive perceptions, grounded in gender, power, sexual- ity, and culture (SoU, 2018). From this view (SoU, 2018), the interests of the individual are subordinated to the interests of the family, relatives, or clans. The control of girls and women goes from “everyday forms of limitations” such as clothing, social relations, freedom of movement, life choices, education, work, marriage and divorce to female genital mutilation, forced marriage, child marriage, threats of violence, and lethal violence (SoU, 2018). While data is limited, it is estimated that 70,000 youth experience limitations in their choice of partner, around 8500 women are worried about being forced by their family to marry against their will, and about five women are murdered because of honour every year (Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society, http://gapf.se/rapporter-och-statistik/), Young men’s dual role as potential perpetrators and/or vic- tims has also received some attention (Rexvid & Schlytter, 2012), but in general, it is men who commit honour violence against women when women seek to make independent lifestyle decisions (Cooney, 2014; Kvinnoforum, 2003). Although the international and nation media, human rights groups, and politicians have raised awareness about honour violence