What causes sexualized violence?

What causes sexualized violence is neither an easy nor a simple question to answer. Sexualized violence is a complicated combination of individual, relationship, social, political, and cultural factors. Sexualized violence is not based on sex and sexual desire, but rather on an abuse of power and a desire for control over someone else.

When we are looking to answer this question we have to look at several issues. One of these is the issue of who the perpetrators and who the victims of this type of violence generally are. In most cases the perpetrators of this violence are heterosexual males while the survivors are predominantly women, children, and gay men or those who are perceived gay. In our society there is systemic and structural discrimination of women and other vulnerable and marginalized groups. There is a devaluing of the worth of the members of these groups which creates a risk of abuse by the dominant group.

We have to look at how we are socialized as men and women, what gender expectations are placed on us and how these impact our behaviors, beliefs, values, and choices. People are often discriminated against when they do not fit into narrow gender scripts. For example, trans-gendered, gay, lesbian and bisexual people are discriminated against because they don't fit the script of being heterosexual and are often targets of violence. What do these gender expectations say about the worth of a man and the worth of a woman? We often think that we have come a long way from the attitudes that place more value on men than women, but is this really the case?

When men are socialized and expected to be aggressive, in control, "powerful", heterosexual, violent, and be sexually motivated then there is a risk for sexualized violence to be perpetuated. When women are socialized and expected to be submissive, quiet, passive, polite, to focus on their bodies and on being attractive to men, there is a risk that they will be vulnerable to violence. We have to examine these expectations and look at how our own actions, beliefs and attitudes may support these. We also have to look at where these expectations are reinforced and decide if we are going to challenge them or let them be perpetuated.

We also have to look around us and be aware that sexualized violence is present in much of our environment. Take a close look at an advertisement or music video. How are women portrayed? How are men portrayed? Could you see men in the roles and physical positions that women are placed in these ads? Many advertisement, music videos and movies have very graphic portrayals of various forms of sexualized violence. Do we become desensitized to this violence when it is all around us? What messages are we receiving about sexualized violence? That it is OK, that it is "sexy", that it's normal. There is a tendency in media to perpetuate rather than challenge the myths and misconceptions around sexualized violence.

Often there is a sense of entitlement when it comes to sex and sexuality. This sense of entitlement linked with gender expectations and the devaluing of women, children and other groups that are looked down upon, can lead to the acceptance of behaviors, actions and words that are very violent and cause hurt.

We have to ask why, when it is such a widespread issue, there are not more laws and programs to deal with sexualized violence. Why is it that sexual assault is still one of the crimes that is least reported and least likely for charges to be laid? Why is it that there is still a tendency to blame a survivor and excuse the behavior of the perpetrator? Why is this still an issue that most people will not talk about? Why is it that children are still growing up surrounded by images that demean women, show women in situations where men have power and control over them and images that equate "real men" with aggression, violence, physical strength, stoicism, and sexual drive. And perhaps a central question in order to find the answer to what causes this form of violence is: why does our society condone or ignore sexually violent messages and behavior?

Link to analysis of sexualized violence