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lanlinJennifer Turpin’s “Women Confronting War” examines impacts of a war on women from the gendre perspective, and discusses that gendre inequality as a major cause for women war victims.
Turpin looks at various ways in which women are war victims, directly and indirectly. The direct impacts of a war on women include casualties, war refugees, rape victims, and the indirect impacts include prostitution and domestic violence. In the order of most direct impacts to most indirect impacts, Turpin delivers a clear idea to the readers that women suffer more from the war than men – the majority of civilian casualties are women and children; more than “four-fifths of war refugees are women and young girls”;(325) women are raped or forced into prostitution in a massive scale; the number of domestic violence increases during wartime.
Turpin uses logos most effectively in this article. Shocking numbers are used to demonstrate the depressive status of women war victims and strongly stimulate readers’ sympathy for the women and young girls who are hurt physically and mentally in the war. For example, civilians for the percentage of casualties raised from 50% in World War II to 90% in 1990s, and most of them were women and their children; by the end of 1992, 36 million out of 46 million war refugees were women and girls (325).
Stunning facts provide another strong proof to support Turpin’s argument. The fact that “even the United Nations peacekeepers…have committed rape and sexual abuse against women and young girls” (327) powerfully leads the readers to the deep thought that “sexual violence is endemic to military culture.” (327)
Ethos is another tactic that Turpin effectively uses in “Women Confronting War.” She mentions that women and young girls are sexually abused by refugee camp guards (326). This is astonishing! Another example of ethos is that local government actually lets poor girls to satisfy soldiers’ sexual demands because the militaries bring capital investment into local communities. There is a strong conflict in terms of ethics. What the militaries or the refugee camps supposed to do is to provide shelter and protection to local civilians and refugees; on the contrast, they add more hurts on those poor women and girls, unexpected.
Turpin’s ultimate purpose is to peel through the suffering truth of women being war victims to analyze the cause for the impacts of war on women – gender inequity. She achieves this goal successfully. Why so many women are raped in the war, from young girl to old granny? “Rape has been used as a weapon for ethnic cleansing, using attacks on women to humiliate and attempt to exterminate another ethnic group,” because if a woman gets pregnant, her child will inherit the father’s ethnicity. (326) Women are not equally valuable as men, not only in certain areas and countries, but also in the military culture at international level. In the opinion of the commander of United States Pacific Command, a girl’s dignity is not even worthy the cost to rent a car!
The only point I don’t agree with Turpin though is that she thinks gender inequality is a cause of war. I think gender inequality is not really a cause of war, but a catalyst for women suffer in the war and from the war.
Turpin looks at various ways in which women are war victims, directly and indirectly. The direct impacts of a war on women include casualties, war refugees, rape victims, and the indirect impacts include prostitution and domestic violence. In the order of most direct impacts to most indirect impacts, Turpin delivers a clear idea to the readers that women suffer more from the war than men – the majority of civilian casualties are women and children; more than “four-fifths of war refugees are women and young girls”;(325) women are raped or forced into prostitution in a massive scale; the number of domestic violence increases during wartime.
Turpin uses logos most effectively in this article. Shocking numbers are used to demonstrate the depressive status of women war victims and strongly stimulate readers’ sympathy for the women and young girls who are hurt physically and mentally in the war. For example, civilians for the percentage of casualties raised from 50% in World War II to 90% in 1990s, and most of them were women and their children; by the end of 1992, 36 million out of 46 million war refugees were women and girls (325).
Stunning facts provide another strong proof to support Turpin’s argument. The fact that “even the United Nations peacekeepers…have committed rape and sexual abuse against women and young girls” (327) powerfully leads the readers to the deep thought that “sexual violence is endemic to military culture.” (327)
Ethos is another tactic that Turpin effectively uses in “Women Confronting War.” She mentions that women and young girls are sexually abused by refugee camp guards (326). This is astonishing! Another example of ethos is that local government actually lets poor girls to satisfy soldiers’ sexual demands because the militaries bring capital investment into local communities. There is a strong conflict in terms of ethics. What the militaries or the refugee camps supposed to do is to provide shelter and protection to local civilians and refugees; on the contrast, they add more hurts on those poor women and girls, unexpected.
Turpin’s ultimate purpose is to peel through the suffering truth of women being war victims to analyze the cause for the impacts of war on women – gender inequity. She achieves this goal successfully. Why so many women are raped in the war, from young girl to old granny? “Rape has been used as a weapon for ethnic cleansing, using attacks on women to humiliate and attempt to exterminate another ethnic group,” because if a woman gets pregnant, her child will inherit the father’s ethnicity. (326) Women are not equally valuable as men, not only in certain areas and countries, but also in the military culture at international level. In the opinion of the commander of United States Pacific Command, a girl’s dignity is not even worthy the cost to rent a car!
The only point I don’t agree with Turpin though is that she thinks gender inequality is a cause of war. I think gender inequality is not really a cause of war, but a catalyst for women suffer in the war and from the war.
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Date: 2013-06-03 02:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-04 10:25 pm (UTC)