Linh Lam
Sam Bell
Honors COMP I
17 October 2014
Neglecting
Crimes Committed upon Women
Crimes
upon women often go unreported year after year. It goes unreported because the
victim is scoffed at by society or is belittled for allowing assaults to happen
to them. One of the many themes in Cara
Hoffman’s So Much Pretty is
abduction, rape, and sexual assaults which is overlooked and avoided to evade
tension. In reality the crimes upon women are still happening but reports and
news are squandered because nobody wants to confront the violence that is
happening around them.
Assaults upon women are not seen as assaults rather the
behavior is merely an act of fascination and dedication of a man towards a
woman or as the saying goes: boys will be boys. The male’s behavior is
justified in the logic that his testosterone levels are in overdrive and it is
an act of admiration which would the girl should be flattered. The act of
bridal kidnapping or marriage by abduction is a custom where the groom-to-be
and the groomsmen kidnap the bride-to-be either in the middle of the night or
in broad day light where she is isolated. At times, the girl is subjected to
rape so that she becomes damaged goods and will not return to her family
(Christian Today). Often the victim is forced to marry their rapist to save her
family’s face in the Hmong community and settle thing with a false happy ending.
Dino and the police force did not want to pester and poke around to investigate
because they believed it would “[terrorize] the town” even more (Hoffman 211). In
both scenarios, the adults do not want to cause a bigger scene, rather they
want to cover up the issue and hide the fact that a crime has been committed to
ease tension. Beverly Haytes did not want to assume that her boys had anything
to do with Wendy. Beverly belittled Wendy’s status with remarks that White’s
appearance is “bland” and that she came from “those soft famlilies [who did not
have] many expectations (Hoffman 141). In the Star Tribune, the 12 year old
girl who had gotten gang raped came home limping and her relative noticed,
instead of being concerned and being involved the relative labeled the girl as
“a little slut” (3). Society has a warped mind, pinning the fault and guilt
upon the victim while setting the violators free. Hmong girls who experience
rape or molestation regularly keep mum about their defilement. The ones who do
go to a trusted adult often get shun with replies such as “that's just what
girls go through” since it happened to the adult(s) back then as well (Star 4).
Women are objectified as sexual objects without rights or intellect and it is
men who “make the decision based on laws men made” (Hoffman 225). Throughout
history and to this day, women are still oppressed and submissive to men.
Little girls cannot voice their violations, because the women who they look to
are chained by men as well.
There are cowardly men who feed off of power over
individuals, specifically women. The community does not reach out to the
victims; instead they either ignore or play down the assault which forces the
ladies to live in darkness. Year after year, girls get harassed but do not
report it because of fear that the community would judge them and because they
were distraught by men. The authority consist of men and the few women who are
on the in the same force are actually under oppression by the men in power.
Sources
LOUWAGIE, PAM, and DAN BROWNING. "Shamed
into Silence."StarTribune.com: News, Weather, Sports from Minneapolis,
St. Paul and Minnesota. Star Tribune, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
LODGE, CAREY. "Bride Kidnapping: A
Horrific Reality for Thousands of Girls."Christian Today. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
Hoffman, Cara. So Much Pretty: A Novel. New
York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print.
