What is being discussed in the video? Explain your answer.
It is about the correction that women’s sexual harassment is not caused by how they dress and how they behave. Women are free to wear anything they like. They are allowed to wear miniskirts, shorts, hijabs, and other clothes as they want. Their clothing is not the reason for sexual harassment to occur. A real example is when a girl who is a student wears shorts or short skirts above the knee to school, it is not a mistake. The mistake is not caused by the student who dresses in such a way, but the fault lies in the men who are always focused on the exposed body parts. Therefore when sexual harassment occurs, women don’t have a right to be blamed for the clothes they wear and their behavior. Those who have the right to blame are the perpetrators of sexual abuse for any reason. In the real world, men, especially as perpetrators, are the controllers and they blame the victims who are mostly women for the reasons regarding what they wear and the behavior they do. Victim blaming cannot be justified. However, in the last of video, many sexual abuse cases have triggered parents to be more concerned about their daughters. A lot of them limit how their daughters dress and what kind of clothes they wear. The policy regarding the use of special uniforms in schools with a length determined was also taken into consideration by many parents and related parties in connection with this case. It is a pity that the only thing to be pressed is from the women’s side. Why only the daughters have to be regulated by their parents in the way they dress to avoid being sexual harassment? Don’t parents also have to teach their sons to be polite and respect women?
What is the speaker’s main purpose? Explain your answer.
The main purpose of the speaker was to emphasize the statement that sexual harassment experienced by women is not caused by their dress but the lust of the abusers. The emphasis is that regardless the woman is scantily or covertly dressed, sexual harassment will still occur when the abusers have a strong lust to do so. In the video, the speakers also have the purpose to defend women victims from the victim blaming phenomenon for the mistakes they did not genuinely commit.
How trustworthy is this video? Who is the speaker? What is the source? Do you think the source and the speaker are trustworthy?
The speakers are a British Model, Nicola McClean and English television personality, broadcaster, as well as a journalist, Vanessa Feltz. This video is from a youtube channel and talk show, “This Morning”. In my opinion, based on the source of the video and the two invited guest stars as the speakers, it shows that this video is quite trustworthy. The source of the video, which is a talk show, always invites guest stars who are critical about a phenomenon or case that occurs in the community by giving opinions, exploring the truth, and breaking down the society stigma. Then, this video is considered quite trustworthy in regard to the background of the speakers. Even though one of the speakers is a model that maybe for some people, it has no relationship with sexual harassment case, she gave a personal view that makes viewers feel moved. It is coupled with the other speaker who is a journalist that certainly understands many cases such as sexual harassment because it is her job to track data and news, analyze it, and report it to the mass media.
What the speaker’s attitude or tone towards the subject? Does he/she seem to agree or disagree with it? Explain your answer.
Answering the questions summarized in the title of the video, the speakers disagree with the statement that clothes are the reason women are sexually harassed. They refute any views that develop in society considered to be wrong then provide the reasons and the real description of the case.
Does the speaker put forward valid or strong arguments? How does he/she support the key points? Explain your answer.
In this video, the speaker provides an argument that is not valid because it does not include data, specific cases, and updated statements from experts in the field of sexual harassment cases, such as the women and children protection commission, psychologists, and counselors. In supporting the key points, the speaker developed an argument from the complaints of sexual harassment victims that happened to young girls and female students.
Explain how this article will help contribute to your larger group project.
This article helps in obtaining the point of view of other people or certain figures regarding the occurrence of sexual harassment cases which are considered by the society to be caused by the clothes the victim is wearing. These different points of view from other people will later be strengthened by supporting evidence, such as some cases of sexual harassment of modestly dressed girls and female students in several Islamic boarding schools who were sexually abused into pregnancy. These arguments and evidences refute the society stigma against blaming victims for cases of sexual harassment they experienced. Then, I looked for information on the reasons for sexual harassment from a trusted source, that is an article written by a doctor on a health blog. It is written that uncontrolled lust, been a victim or witness of sexual harassment, bad habit of watching porn content, sexual fantasy, and disharmony family are several reasons why sexual harassment occurs. For those reasons, it can be concluded that their clothing is not the reason that underlies that bad incident.
What is being discussed in the video? Explain your answer.
Most sexual assaulting education is about males sexually assaulting females and most of that is centered around date rape (rape by a person known to the victim). Not all rape is date rape. Nearly 25% of males will experience contact sexual violence in their lifetime. So, how come we never talk about it? So, maybe it’s because of those male sexual assault victims only a quarter of them will actually report their assaults to the police (in a 2018 study). Why do men not want to report their assaults to the police?
Based on the speaker’s sexual assault experience, some reasons that made him worried when he experienced sexual assault are:
– Loss of popularity
– Loss of friends
– Broke up with the partner
– Afraid of not receiving any support
– The police are unable to fix the case
– Injustice between perpetrators and victims. The perpetrators of man sexual harassment are still supported in many ways and still have a good reputation, while the victims are even blamed and bullied.
– Society misconception. Physically imposing oneself on another person is willful domination. It means that society believes that men cannot be sexually assaulted.
The investigation of a process for male sexual assault victims can be nearly unbearable. The world outside report a lack of recovery services for sexual assault victims. Many of the current recovery systems in place are centered around the many females that are raped and sexually harassed every year. The male victim told him that nobody received a mental health consult, and there was no doctor or medication for anxiety and depression.
What is the speaker’s main purpose? Explain your answer.
The speaker’s main purpose is to change the stigma around male sexual assault victims, as well as encourage victims to share their stories and foster change within themselves, their families, and their communities. He is passionate about ending male sexual assault stigmas and helping victims receive the help that they need to recover properly.
How trustworthy is this video? Who is the speaker? What is the source? Do you think the source and the speaker are trustworthy?
The video entitled “Man Can be Sexual Assaulted, Too” has a good quality that is shown through the message conveyed by the speaker and the credibility of the video source. I got this video from Youtube with the channel named “TEDx Talks”. I think the source and the speaker are trustworthy. The source, TEDx Talks, is a showcase that invites speakers with great ideas on various topics including education, business, science, technology, and issues or cases that are currently alarming. The speakers who collaborate with this program are people who are experts in their fields or people who have experienced certain issues. The speaker in this video is CJ Krainock, the CEO of Incline Marketing and baseball coach at Madison High School in Rexburg. Regarding the sexual assaulting case, CJ Krainock was one of the victims of man sexual assault. He had this unpleasant experience when he was 14 years old and got into a public sexual assault scandal with his baseball team. As a trustworthy speaker, he experienced this bad thing himself and fought his breakdown as a victim by reporting the sexual assault he had, fighting all the wrong stigma of society that lead to victim blaming, and helping sexually assault victims to get the best psychological recovery.
What the speaker’s attitude or tone towards the subject? Does he/she seem to agree or disagree with it? Explain your answer.
In this video, the speaker was ever worried after experiencing sexual assault. Several considerations made him discouraged from reporting the case to the police. Those considerations are dominated by the loss of careers, relationships, and support, and the most affecting is the stigma of society. Society thinks that physically imposing oneself on another person is willful domination. It shows that society considers the cases of men sexual harassment not as “assaulting” but something that arises when the person experiencing it is in a submissive position (as opposed to dominant) so that sexual assault will not occur if the victim does not have a lower position or in other words have a position that is equally high or higher. In fact, the speaker with his sexual assaulter was a baseball teammate. There is no indication of a difference in position between them. The speaker disagreed with this as evidenced by reporting his case to the police and it was found that the fear only arose from himself and the stigma of society that did not understand about men’s sexual assault. Many people supported him, even the person who first reported the incident to the speaker’s parents was a friend who was also on the baseball team. In short, the speaker disagrees with any society stigma that is considered false and tends to blame the sexual assault victims.
Does the speaker put forward valid or strong arguments? How does he/she support the key points? Explain your answer.
In this video, the speaker provides a fairly valid argument. While not mentioning clearly and specifically, to support the argument, speaker disclosed a data in 2018 about 25% of men were sexually abused. Validation in the argument are also demonstrated by the speaker’s story of the sexual assault he himself was experienced in which it overturned the stigma and proved it with some facts. At the end of the video, the speaker also visited to the victim of sexual assault and discovered the fact that there is less of mental recovery dor the victim and the recovery was only focused on the female victim.
Explain how this article will help contribute to your larger group project.
This article reveals the fears of male victims for their reasons for not reporting cases of sexual harassment they experienced, one of them concerns again with society stigma. Society reveals that the perpetrator has a dominant role than the victim. Therefore, they conclude that a high position is something that will deter someone from sexual harassment. This article is also helpful in exposing the lack of mental recovery in male victims of sexual harassment as most of this is provided to female victims. It proves that mental services are still discriminated against by gender even though both of them experience the same incident.
What is being discussed in the video? Explain your answer.
The video begins with the speaker’s experience of having a sexual assault in a foreign country in a physical form, touching body parts, and she responded by saying “I’m sorry” to the perpetrator. This response is related to the perception of several people behind #Metoo regarding some questions like “Why didn’t she speak up?” or “Why didn’t she fight back?” or “Why didn’t she resist?”. Answering these questions with an analogy when one in three girls and one in five boys have been sexually assaulted, but the vast majority of them did nothing in the moment, they froze up. Some people think of freezing up as just inaction, but it goes deeper than that. A sexual assault survivor revealed that she could only say ‘No’ with a nearly paralyzed body and even smiled as an attempt to avoid the crime. Dr. Rebecca S. Heiss, Ph. D, an expert in biology, stress, and self-awareness says, “Just play along until you can escape”, means that doing anything in a dangerous situation is better than fighting back because it can pose a threat to life and safety. When the victims of sexual abuse can only say ‘No’, their brains are at their most desperate and take over dangerous situations. As a result, it turns off their logic and thinking so that the only option is to survive while they freeze up.
This frozen condition that the victims of sexual abuse experience is called Tonic Immobility, literally means that the brain turns off the muscle to react in order to keep us alive. So, Why does sexual assault elicit a survival response? Rape and sexual assault isn’t about sex. It’s about power, control, and dominance. If the victim resists, he or she might just be killed even if there is a slightest hope to escape. A study was conducted in 2000 on college-aged women in which subjects were asked highly inappropriate questions in a job interview setting, such as, “Do you wear bras to work” and “Do you find yourself sexually desirable?”. The results show a gap between what we think, we should or will do, and our current actions. Each of the women said that if they were sexually assaulted, they would respond by being confrontational by leaving and reporting it. Yet when it actually happened, none of them reacted the way they had imagined. Instead, the researchers saw a startling response in the video recordings of these interactions. During the interview, the women sat patiently and answered the questions while smiling. Now is this a validation?
Another study revealed that 70% of rape victims experience tonic immobility and only 5% of them report it to the police. This is because ‘speak up’ is dangerous. Society will shame them, their boss may fire them, and romantic partners may shun them, but this response of freezing is illogical and unjustifiable. Tonic immobility is a reflex, instinct, and physiological reaction that is triggered by high-stress situations. Even if we want to scream, yell, or kick, our brain ensures that our muscles are frozen and it is absolutely very difficult to override our body’s natural response at that moment. A victim of sexual assault is often unable to simply say ‘No’ or fight back because of this reaction. The brain tends to force a freeze response when the victim is faced with overwhelming adversaries. Women tend to be weaker or have lower status than men. Men who are sexually assaulted by someone who is older, bigger, or in a higher position, the frozen response becomes a condition that only remains as a mechanism. So, how to deal with sexual assault for the victims, either as anticipation or as conciliation for themselves?
1. Stop blaming yourself or others for this response
The tonic immobility is a natural reaction. Our brain takes over to save life. A recent article said, “This is enough.”, means that we have done the best thing by not endangering our lives, so don’t keep blaming ourselves. Instill the mindset that the crime lies in the perpetrator. Report your case to the police, no matter how small, to prove that even though a sexual crime has not been in the form of rape, it can still be processed and the perpetrator can be prosecuted.
2. Take Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) course
RAD is a self-defense program against of sexual violence. After taking this program, the speaker returned to a place where she had experienced sexual assault and almost experienced the same thing. With the skills that have been taught, the speaker can fight back the gang of strangers. It is considered quite successful. However, the situation can be reversed when the people faced are bigger, more numerous, and armed. The brain will still freeze in that situation. In another case in the face of sexual assault at work or on a date, people will deliberately train themselves to respond differently to these attacks.
3. Retrain your stress response and practice role plays
Retrain our stress response through exposure to safe experiences such as role plays, so your brain has several options to choose if you are attacked or abused.
The message from the speaker:
Be kind to yourself and others who have experienced sexual violence. Judgment and blame don’t help at all. We as cultured people can take action to stop sexual assault and harassment, but to do so, understand the reasons why survivors act as they do when faced with danger.
What is the speaker’s main purpose? Explain your answer.
The main purpose of the speaker sharing her story and the insight is answering the people questions of why the sexual violance victims can only say ‘No’, cannot scream, cannot fight back, and cannot do the other actions while assaulted. The speaker answers the questions by giving information about tonic immobility, a condition where the body freezes up while faced in a dangerous situation that becomes the main reason why the victim cannot fight back. The speaker also gives the way to the sexual assault victims as conciliation for themselves and the way to anticipate sexual assaulted.
How trustworthy is this video? Who is the speaker? What is the source? Do you think the source and the speaker are trustworthy?
In my opinion, the source and the speaker from the video entitled, “The Freeze Response and Sexual Assault: PTSD and Trauma Recovery #2” are trustworthy. I got this video from a Youtube channel ‘Therapy in Nutshell’ that was created by the speaker, Emma McAdam, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT). Emma who is the speaker in that video and also the founder of the ‘Therapy in Nutshell’ podcast, has experience in juvenile corrections, adventure therapy programs, wilderness therapy programs, an eating disorder treatment center, a residential treatment center, and currently she works in an outpatient therapy clinic. In the therapy, she uses a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treat mental illness and other challenges people face in life. The ideas in her videos are often adapted from many sources, including the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. She also cited many theories in the sections on stress and the mind-body connection derived from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) , Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. To support her ideas, Emma also heavily relies on the work of the Arbinger institute for her overall understanding of people’s ability to choose their life’s direction. So, based on the experience, credibility, and how she builds the information conveyed in her videos, the speaker is considered very trustworthy in providing knowledge to people about sexual harassment according to the victims’ perspectives.
What the speaker’s attitude or tone towards the subject? Does he/she seem to agree or disagree with it? Explain your answer.
From many statements of victims who have been sexually assaulted and raped regarding the paralyzed condition they faced when they experienced this, the speaker totally agreed and confirmed that it really happened, that there is a condition called tonic immobility. The speaker strongly condemns people who do not understand the perspective of sexual assault victims with various cornering questions on why the victims can only say ‘No’, why the victims don’t speak up, and why the victims don’t fight back”.
Does the speaker put forward valid or strong arguments? How does he/she support the key points? Explain your answer.
The speaker supported her argument with her own experience of sexual assault as a teenager, taking various statements from victims of sexual harassment who had been her mental therapy patients, quoting Dr. Rebecca S. Heiss, Ph. D. who is an expert in biology, pressure, and self-awareness, and strengthens her arguments by including several studies and calculating data containing the percentage of victims with tonic immobility when they sexually assaulted who report it to the police.
Explain how this article will help contribute to your larger group project.
This article helps to dig into the fact that victims of sexual harassment fully experience a frozen response called Tonic Immobility so that it can silence society on the question “Why don’t the victims scream for help? Why don’t they just run away or fight back?”. I also include the studies in this article in my video project where 5% of the 70% of victims of sexual harassment who experience Tonic Immobility do not report their cases to the police and tend to keep them silent because society is ‘the second perpetrator’ which always treats the victim badly.
What is being discussed in the video? Explain your answer.
A huge step was made by the president of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, officially repealing the “Marry-Your-Rapist” law. It led to a major movement for other countries in the region to do the same. Although there are still countries around the world with variations of this law still in place and the majority are in the Middle East and Africa, the west is no exception. Human Rights Watch researcher, Rothna Begum, said that they largely originated from France’s Napoleonic code of 1810, which stated that if a kidnapper “marries the girl he has stolen,” the family could waive criminal prosecution. The couple was also required to stay together for a period of time if the alleged rapist wants to avoid punishment. A similar article was adopted into the Ottoman code of 1911 and many countries of the world adopted similar laws after the western colonial powers introduced them. Rothna Begum, a senior women’s rights researcher, HRW said, “It was then applied to a lot of French mandates in the countries where France colonized them, particularly in North Africa, Lebanon, and several countries in the Middle east. When the British colonized several countries in the Middle East as well, they did not apply the British code in those circumstances, but the Ottoman Code, or allowed the Ottoman code to apply for the Muslims. Some of them retained these colonial provisions.” France just repealed this law in 1994 and it was followed by other Western countries, such as Denmark and Italy. Countries in the Middle East and North Africa have also dropped their own provisions in recent years. According to Begum, patriarchal attitudes have kept versions of the law in place for years around the world. After so many motions, some lawmakers felt they were protecting survivors. Begum said, “The idea behind a lot of these marriages or terrible crimes is interrelated between the concept of women and girls as being property. It is about the virginity of the woman and girl being ‘damaged goods.’”
Protests have emerged in countries around the world, from Turkey to Lebanon to Morocco, where in 2012, 16-year-old Amina Filali committed suicide after being forced to marry her rapist, who continued to sexually abuse her after their marriage. “He is a criminal and shouldn’t be free. We have to hold on to our rights. He could do the same with others. He must be stopped.” – Hamida Filali, Amina’s sister. The Amina case is just one modern example of many that the law doubled down on the trauma for women, while essentially giving the perpetrator a get-out-of-jail card instead. The head of a women’s shelter in the West Bank documented 60 cases at the shelter from 2011 to 2017 in which rape prosecutions were stopped after the alleged rapist married the victim. According to the World Bank, the Philippines, Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Kuwait, Libya, and Syria have legal provisions stipulating that perpetrators of rape or sexual assault can escape punishment by marrying the victim. Experts from the World Bank, women’s rights NGO Equality Now, and Human Rights Watch indicated that it is still difficult to compile a truly comprehensive list of countries with these provisions due to the diversity of research methodologies. The language in the laws of each country can also be contradictory, not well codified, or confusingly worded. The difficulty in tracking down this law shows the root of the problem i.e. lack of accountability, awareness, and discussion.
There are also variations of this law in other parts of the world, such as in Greece, Russia, Serbia, and Thailand where an alleged rapist can avoid prosecution if the victim is a underage. Other variations exist in Singapore, Romania, Thailand, and Turkey where rapists and sexual assault perpetrator will go unpunished if the victim “forgives” them. There are also a dozen other countries where the alleged rapist get off for reaching settlements with the victim’s family and there are at least 10 other countries where intermarital rape is completely legal. One of three women has suffered sexual or physical violence and one of 10 girls has been raped or sexually assaulted. This law has the potential for them to be trapped in violence cycle which often occurs at a very young age. “There is no human being that can bear this law. How a 13-year-old girl could endure the worst thing that we can live through. As if it was not enough. The legislation offers her rapist the right to rape her for her whole life.” – Hager Manzli, a protestor. This demonstration by the Lebanese women’s group Abaad included a provocative campaign, coupled with petitions from other women’s groups resulted in the repealing of the country’s own legal loopholes and it generated some legislative momentum. It is in line with Begum’s statement that a women’s rights group will lead the charge against ‘Marry-Your-Rapist’ laws in various countries. Then, is assistance in addressing violence against women more than laws that need to be changed?
Although it can be cause for people to celebrate when countries repeal these laws, it does not mean they’re making significant progress in halting gender-based violence. As long as these patriarchal attitudes are reinforced, the practice will continue, says Begum. “The practice of forced marriage to rapists actually exists beyond the law, so there are situations where families are doing this without actually involving the authorities at all.” In places like Lebanon, even after the ‘Marry-Your-Rapist’ loophole was closed, activists pointed out that no law exists criminalizing child marriage or marital rape. Whereas in Tunisia, repealing their law came as part of a larger motion to eliminate violence against women and girls, including new effort to support survivors with psychological and legal assistance. Begum thinks that changes within the education system are the key. She added, “You have to get to the root of what’s going on in society. One is to really have sex education. Secondly is that no woman or girl should be identified simply as a sexual object. Thirdly, we also need to combat that level of stigma on sexual violence victims.” – Rothna Begum, a senior women’s rights researcher of Human Rights Watch.
What is the speaker’s main purpose? Explain your answer.
The speaker is passionate to influence the audience to move against the “Marry-Your-Rapist” law by providing information on countries that recently repealed the law and countries that still enforce it, coupled with the impact on victims. The speaker hopes that this information and encouragement can move people by heart, invite people to be more critical of the effects of implementing this law in the future, and hope to help survivors in obtaining legal and psychological justice.
How trustworthy is this video? Who is the speaker? What is the source? Do you think the source and the speaker are trustworthy?
The speaker is Alex Janin, a reporter who focuses on personal health and wellness. According to profile data from The Wall Street Journal blog, Alex Janin is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and experienced in presenting breaking news, culture, politics, and millennials & Gen Z for newsrooms including NowThis News, Al Jazeera, and Los Angeles Magazine. Alex gets several rewards, including receiving an award for his work on California earthquake preparedness training that she was runner-up for the 2016 Los Angeles Press Club Award in the television news category. She was also awarded in the 2017 for “News and Media” category in which she reported on the Trump administration’s cuts to women’s healthcare funding and the DACA program. It can be concluded from the education, experiences, and awards received, the speaker, Alex Janin, are considered trustworthy in bringing information on topics related to sexual assault.
Alex Janin collaborates with a YouTube channel called NowThis World in presenting the information in this video. NowThis World itself is a Youtube channel dedicated to presenting topical explainers that explore current issues based on international news by examining facts, providing historical context, and outlining the parties involved. NowThis World also highlights powerful countries, ideologies, influential leaders, and the ongoing global conflicts that will shape the current landscape of the international community across the globe.
In this video, the speaker takes the latest case as concrete evidence in presenting the information. The speaker also explored the case related to its history and obtained data from official sources such as the World Bank, women’s rights NGO Equality Now, and Human Rights Watch in knowing the list of countries with acquittals against rapists and sexual abusers. This video is strengthen by a conference with the senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, Rothna Begum, who focused on discrimination and violence against women and girls in the Middle East and North Africa region, including leading the research and advocacy on the abuse and exploitation of migrant domestic workers, domestic violence against women and girls, child marriage, sexual violence in conflict, discriminatory family laws, and male guardianship policies. So, it can be concluded that the speaker and the source of the video are trustworthy.
What the speaker’s attitude or tone towards the subject? Does he/she seem to agree or disagree with it? Explain your answer.
Based on the content of the video, the speaker disagrees with the existence of the “Marry-Your-Rapist” law that rapists can be released from punishment when they marry the victim. The real example of the impact of this law, the case of Amina Filali, a case of a teenager who committed suicide after she was forced to marry her rapist who continued to commit sexual violence in her marriage, is given in the video as evidence of speaker’s disapproval. At the end of the video, the speaker stated that the repeal of the “Marry-Your-Rapist” law is the right step to avoid double traumas for victims and invited public to be aware of the root of the problem stated by Rothna begum, an expert who was involved in strengthening the video content, related to giving sex education and the resistance to the stigma that women are only used as sexual objects.
Does the speaker put forward valid or strong arguments? How does he/she support the key points? Explain your answer.
There are several things that can strengthen and support the speaker’s argument, including:
(a) Presenting what happened at that time where many demonstrations emerged in several countries after the Palestinian state repealed the “Marry-Your-Rapist” law, taken from international news that was trending at that time. From one of the demonstrations emerged, the reporter of the video interviewed one of the demonstrators conveying her motion regarding disapproval of the law.
(b) Drawing a historical line in which the law of “Marry-Your-Rapist” had existed since the 1810 French’ Napoleonic code and the 1911 Ottoman code were enacted.
(c) Obtaining data from the West Bank regarding the number of cases of releasing rapists from punishment after marrying the victim counted from 2011 to 2017.
(d) Obtaining countries that still enforce the “Marry-Your-Rapist” law from the World Bank source and stated that World Bank, women’s rights NGO Equality Now, and Human Rights Watch had difficulty in getting a list of other countries with the variations of that law due to the different research methods to the law language that is difficult to code.
(e) Presenting a senior women’s rights researcher of Human Rights Watchresearcher, Rothna Begum, who gave some explanation starting from the history of the “Marry-Your-Rapist” law, the concept of women as a sexual property, and the explanation of steps to combat the root of the problem.
Explain how this article will help contribute to your larger group project.
This article helps in obtaining examples of cases against perpetrators of sexual harassment where they can be released from prison if they want to marry their victims. The case in the middle east, in Morocco, some massive demonstrations were held over demands for the death of a rape victim who committed suicide because she was married to her perpetrator who continued to sexually abused her after marriage. This article also helps in obtaining information about countries that apply these rules and obtain reasons for its legalization from an expert opinion that women are only used as ‘property’.
What is being discussed in the video? Explain your answer.
A common thing that is experienced by victims of sexual harassment is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with different symptoms. The speaker’s private psychologist provides the ways to reconcile after experiencing sexual harassment. He has conducted a research on this method on Holocaust survivors, combat soldiers, and sexual survivors who exhibit the same symptoms post-incidents as feeling disconnected from themselves, unable to sleep well, freezing in many situations, being easily triggered, and being really angry a lot of things. It is hoped that this method can help the victims of sexual harassment out there who cannot take control as well as give them an understanding that the power which controls them is the result of something that happened and they may change it. People often don’t understand what victims of sexual harassment with PTSD feel and they think that it’s a normal incident or common incident. They will say “Okay, you just need to go on vacation, somewhere that impacts your life”. The incident is not as light as usual where we can replace bad memories by doing pleasure things, but it refers more to traumatic points that often occur in different aspects.
The ways that help the speaker to reconcile with her situation when she found herself as a victim of sexual harassment based on her private psychologist’s suggestion are:
a) Consulting an expert.
This is the same as what the speaker did when she experienced sexual harassment in high school then she consulted with her psychologist. This way will help sexual harassment victim in obtaining psychologically treatment through various suggestions to recover.
b) Having therapy
Doing meditation is amazing because it helps the victims to be more calm, helps them in making their sleep better, helps them connect with themselves which will make them love themselves more, be proud of what they have, and give them a positive impression that they are awesome.
c) Sharing the story to other people
It might conflict with other people’s perceptions that a bad experience such as experiencing sexual harassment is a disgrace, so it is unethical to share. However, according to the speaker, sharing her story will help her to recover more quickly from their sympathy, attention, support, and help.
d) Reconciling with ourselves
You yourself are choosing to get angry and even though it’s hard to change the reaction, try to control it. Maybe you can’t control what happened, but you now can control your response. So, that’s really great because it makes you feel empowered but feeling like a victim is the ultimate disempowering feeling.
e) Forgiving on what happened
It will also be a way of conflicting with others. The speaker makes her own mindset to reconcile with the situation by making assumptions about the perpetrator that he was also a victim that previously experienced a sexual abuse in some way in his life.
f) Doing positive things
Doing positive things will make the sexual harassment victim quickly reconcile with the circumstances and be able to focus more on useful things instead of being dissolved in a downturn. The speaker does the positive things by working with sexual assault survivors, dedicating as a volunteer to support them, exploring a lot of education on the topic, giving understanding to people who are feeling powerless.
What is the speaker’s main purpose? Explain your answer.
The main purpose of the speaker is to help victims of sexual harassment to recover from their downturn after experiencing that bad experience and sincerely hope that the method she shares can help them to recover more quickly. It should be emphasized that the speaker does not intend to bring back the victims to the past traumas, in fact the speaker wants to help control the trauma even if not totally.
How trustworthy is this video? Who is the speaker? What is the source? Do you think the source and the speaker are trustworthy?
The speaker named, Marina, is a victim of sexual harassment who successfully get up with her struggles and support from others. She is a vegan blogger, educator, and recipe creator. Marina herself uploads her video about PTSD and how to deal with it on her personal YouTube channel with the name ‘Marina from Soul in the Raw’. As she said in the video that what she did was the thing that worked in recovering her trauma from sexual harassment that she had experienced, so that it could lead to different perceptions from other people even it would even be contradictory. So, based on the speaker, YouTube personal channel, and its contents, this video is considered less trustworthy because it is only including personal opinions.
What the speaker’s attitude or tone towards the subject? Does he/she seem to agree or disagree with it? Explain your answer.
Because this is the speaker’s personal ways as the treatment of her trauma from the sexual harassment she has experienced, it does not indicate agreement or disagreement.
Does the speaker put forward valid or strong arguments? How does he/she support the key points? Explain your answer.
The speaker only explained about her methods of recovering from the trauma she got from her experience of sexual harassment. These methods are partly the advice of her personal psychologist and partly her own. So, the validity of the speaker’s argument will be proven by the viewers themselves.
Explain how this article will help contribute to your larger group project.
This article helps provide assistance to victims who experience sexual harassment as an effort to reconcile themselves. Some of the ways in it are based on psychologists’ suggestions so that the victims can try them in order to come up from the adversity of the cases that have been experienced by them.