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Shonna Trinch journal research articles talks about Latino community women in particular and how they experience rape in a social legal justice system in America. Culture norms in society of what is expected of men and women are complex.. In this case Latino women are getting rape by their husband however, when they make a report unfortunately things does not look good for them. The justice system blame them (women) for being in that situation. Husbands them use their children as a means to get the women doing what they want. The child them gets stuck in the middle, from their mental disorders develop and the mother is in a more difficult situation. The mother has to take a stand against culture norm of what is expected of them.
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Shonna Trinch is an activist, a woman standing up for rape. Trinch wants to help woman stand up for themselves and talk out against rape. Rape is something taboo, something unethical, something not worth speaking about but that's just it. Shonna Trinch research work on interviewing women who are raped especially Latino women but they are bonded by laws and legal terms that do not stand up for them. Instead Latino women stutter because of a mental trauma due to getting rape, it’s truly admirable to see a woman stand up proud and strong that can admit to the fact that they have been raped whether it may be by their own husband, stranger, neighbor even family member. Shonna Trinch is not going to let rape drag, women Latino in particular, down in life.
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Trinch is an linguistic anthropologist Professor who currently works at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She teaches two class which are: sex and culture and language and culture. Gender norms in each culture and society especially Latino community and break down on how it gets constructed. Afterwards taboo subjects such as: rape, sex, sexual assault and sexual harassment then gets included in topic conversation. Shonna Trinch exploits men understanding in society where men in general thinks that what women say is the opposite. For example, when a women doesn't want to have sex with men and they say no to the person, men however, thinks that it means yes. Unfortunately, women becomes a victim of sexual abuse but men sees this as women being weak and undecided but also very confusing. In men thinking ways women are dependent on them for sexual instincts but Trinch however points out that that is not true.
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"I feel there is something unexplored about woman that only a woman can explore." - Georgia O'Keeffe |
Women don't need men for sex, men needs us women. Men think they might be superior but think about it carefully they really are not. They might makes more money than us, more financially dependent that us but that's just how society treat them. Give women a chance and you’ll see women do not need men especially when it comes to sex. In Shonna Trinch eyes this generation, women are independent. They can do things for themselves they don't need to be dependent on men. We have a voice, we can take a stand on this, we can help each other out. “No means no,” but for men apparently no means yes. This understanding that men have needs to be fixed.
Shonna Trinch conducts a program call Seeing Rape. Where nine John Jay students write plays or scripts where gender norms, sexual assault, sexual harassment, rape, sex, bisexuality is seen, by doing so Trinch shows the audience that rape is not acceptable. Secondly, if you have been raped to talk out and say something do not be afraid because it is just not you alone in this world anymore. It have many women all different age and background that experience the same thing as you. Thirdly, men including can get rape or even sexually assaulted and men won't even speak out against it for multiple reasons such as: they afraid they might be fired from there job or maybe even if they tell someone that person won't believe them and it makes it harder on them and it can even affect them on the fact that they will not be seen as men but women in regards that they are weak. Fourthly, she is trying to open people's mind both men and women but men in particular about their social construct gender norms and behaviors. |
Shonna Trinch brings up culture as a whole and beings to break it down into categories but mainly she talked about sex. Sex for women is frown upon especially a women having too much sex she is seem as a slut and whore. She makes a point where men and women having sex is seen differently one is a slut and the next one is getting praised. Why is that? How is it any different minus the fact that gender is defined by cultural elaborations and meanings assigned to biological sex which are: chromosomes which are xx for girl and xy for boy, genitals for girls vagina and for boys penis, last but not least gonads which are ovaries for girls and testes for boys. Men have sex because its fun so why can’t women do the same? Why must there be a negative connotation associated with women having too much sex?
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Rape in Latino community is very common especially since the gender social construct of latino women as being anismo meaning submissive and men while men on the other hand are machismo meaning they are the financial stability, head of the household, provides warmth and food for the family etc. Trinch’s (2007) study provides birds eye view on, "...how women in abusive relationships can actually establish their... authority through what have been labeled as ‘oppressive’ gender roles. Males and females alike that... fail to enact the roles that culture expects of them are often subjected to punishments that may range from name calling…” (p. 55). In many of these cases with Latino women staying in these abusive relationships is due to their gender social constructs in society. Since, the women can not leave because the idea that they are not meant to be the “head of the household” is something that has been within their culture every since they were babies. You tend to see these cases where abusive relationships are found in Latino women the legal justice system ends up framing the women for being unable to take care of her child or children. When society ends up doing this approach you then begin to question yourself well why don’t the Latino community of women do not be submissive and under men. Why won’t society let Latino women stand up for them-self? |
Trinch’s (2011) study on forging violence against women Latino women in particular specially with abused partners highlights, “... Anystate’s Family Code in order to apply for a protective order, the person victimized has to be related to the alleged abuser in specific ways.n these intimate-partner cases, a woman is eligible for a protection from abuse order if she (1) is related to the alleged perpetrator by blood or marriage, (2) is/was/had been living with him, and/or (3) has a child with him. In other words, residence, marriage and biological connection through offspring are the objective criteria used by interviewers to determine if complaining women meet the state’s eligibility requirements to apply and file for a protective order,” ( p. 398). Why won't society let Latino women be independent rather than depending on a husband. Men then use the children against their mothers in this notion abusive men are seen as good fathers are such contradiction in definite view.
“... in practice the standard for what constitutes rape is set not at the level of women's experience of violation but just above the level of coercion acceptable to men.” - Judith Lewis Herman |
In her podcast with NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault, Shonna Trinch talks about gender norms and how they structure people to conduct themselves in public. The hashtag #SexTalkHappyHour involves talks about sex, rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment and how it is seen today. Trinch wants to unfold the representation of rape in the legal system along with Barbara Cassidy. On how specifically how people who have been victimized by sexual violence how do they represent rape and sexual violence linguistically as an anthropologists. Provide evidence on how victims story changes from person to person, how do they tell their story, and who do they tell about this but more insight on how social and linguistically why do people stories change. Trinch goes on to say that she want people to have a better representation of rape since this type of conversation is uncomfortable comfortable, meaning to say that this is a quiet uncomfortable topic to talk about but it happens all around us so we have to be comfortable to talk about rape.
She wants her student to have access to the academic study of rape. In the podcast Trinch brings up that her students have opened minded minds since participating in her class that then reflects their aspects towards rape. Which is being seen in a different logical way where they are seeing the world in a different place, including seeing women in a different way, and seeing LGBTQ people in a different way. In her class they humanize others that people would not ever notice because of society definition of what is the norm. Notions and ideas of rape are sometimes faulty and are shaped into being a negative form however Trinchs' long term goal is to radicalized rape. Yet we still have to take into consideration that people of color also gets rape including men also whereas people of color would get criminalized and men would get their masculinity questioned, the social function creates this to being a negative connotation.
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Rape is not acceptable but yet no legal system is taking a stand against this for Latino women. Shonna Trinch points out that when she interviewed the clients, Latino women are not supposed to use such crude language instead they indirectly use language to describe the scenario, “ Instead of blatantly stating, ‘Then he tried to rape me’, or ‘Then he tried to sodomize me’, she selects a descriptive phrase, ‘…y luego quiere sexo por, por donde no se debe’, or ‘then he wants sex where you’re not supposed to have sex’, in order to explain what happened.” (Trinch, 2007, p. 61). As the Latino women did this she is trying to say that I would not put myself in the same light as my husband and men brutish behavior. I would not stoop down to that kind of behavior and as a lady I will carry myself with dignity.
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I will explain the situation to the best of my ability without being as crude as my husband by doing so Latino women are standing proud and standing up to rape. Rape is a very serious crime, women need to take a stand but they don’t have enough confidence in order to get that going. Even in workplaces, sexual assault is taken place, even sexual harassment occurs in the street. It happens every way you go, it's never ending but we have to let people be more evident to this cause. We have to spread news around the world, we can’t let this stay the same forever. Around the globe this is happening this starts now, our words need to loud and clear to men and society as a whole. We can’t let society and men bring us down even more. We as women have to take a stand on this otherwise we’ll always stay the same.
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- Trinch, Shonna., (2011). Forging Violence Against Women: Documents, Regimes of Family and Intimate-Partner Abuse. Law, Culture and the Humanities, 7(3), 394-412.
- Trinch, Shonna., (2007). The pragmatic use of gender in Latina women's legal narratives of abuse. International Journal of Speech Language and the Law, 14(1), 51-83.
- Marion Bolognesi. Retrieved from http://www.marion-b.com/index.php?/paintings/blog/
- Sakura cherry blossom. Retrieved from https://jw-webmagazine.com/the-facts-about-cherry-blossoms-in-japan-3ed693e575ec
