Access over 35 million academic & study documents

Women S Subjectivity

Content type
User Generated
Subject
Law
Type
Homework
Rating
Showing Page:
1/2
1
For this week’s assignment,
i. Please explain first what subjectivity means and link it to the following quote in the
context of domestic violence:
"Women often leave the right-bearing subjectivity, taking up again her subjectivity as a good
wife" (Merry 2003: 351).
Subjectivity;
Subjectivity in common term refer to the state of original commitment(s) as result of personal
identity based on experiences and intuitions notwithstanding an external environmental
perceptions. Being in this conditional status enables one to perceive things that others (within
the same environment) may not be well aware of. Subjectivity arises from the mental conditions
of the brain and not directly from an external stimuli. Women often leave the right-bearing
subjectivity, taking up again her subjectivity as a good wife.” This particular quote from
(Merry, 2003, p. 351), elaborates that women, ever since, has been aligned to a specific
subjective role in the society and thus shifting from one subjective role to the other role is often
seen as denial of the prime subjective role and acquisition of a new role.
The reason as to why most women relent in their endeavour to approaching and seeking legal
protections is that it may mess up her relations with her kin and her spouse as she receives
pressures to leave him and turn to a new source of support in social services and legal officials
and when they encounter leniency from the legal systems concerning these oppressions i.e.
when a police fails to arrests their oppressors due to patriarchal beliefs; the women feel
betrayed by the system and automatically resumes her conditional status of being a good wife,
as she cannot be subjective to both.
ii. One paragraph response.
Then reply to one student; NB: (I chose the second student’s comment)
"The definition of subjectivity is when an individual's personal beliefs, opinions and prior
knowledge directly influences their decision-making instead of solely on facts. By reading the
particular quote, it seems to define that in many cases where the individuals that are conducting
the trial are mostly patriarchal. Battered women themselves are the only ones that know what
they faced first-hand and in many times during cases, they are belittled and are not taken
seriously. Due to our patriarchal state, trials of domestic violence cases are usually favoured
by the perpetrator and by such action, this directly discourages women to speak out upon the
violence, this takes away from her legal rights. Also, in many domestic violence cases, there is
more pressure on the victim by acknowledging if they were a good wife or if they had cheated
to justify the perpetrator's actions. In a way, it puts the victim in a place where it seems as if
they were the problem. "
Reply:
It is true indeed that subjectivity is oriented towards what one feels within herself with which
no other person of opposite gender may feel. Failing to fulfil the women’s quests of justice is
another way of subjecting the woman in belittlement, this squeezes their mental condition and
placing them in a society where most people expect them to be “just a good wife” in order for
her to be loved and accepted by the family, society and the community at large. Yesthe society
also questions a women role prior to violence, with the assumption that she may have not been
“good wife” in the first place.
References

Sign up to view the full document!

lock_open Sign Up
Showing Page:
2/2

Sign up to view the full document!

lock_open Sign Up
Unformatted Attachment Preview
For this week’s assignment, i. Please explain first what subjectivity means and link it to the following quote in the context of domestic violence: "Women often leave the right-bearing subjectivity, taking up again her subjectivity as a good wife" (Merry 2003: 351). Subjectivity; Subjectivity in common term refer to the state of original commitment(s) as result of personal identity based on experiences and intuitions notwithstanding an external environmental perceptions. Being in this conditional status enables one to perceive things that others (within the same environment) may not be wel ...
Purchase document to see full attachment
User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following Studypool's honor code & terms of service.

Anonymous
Awesome! Perfect study aid.

Studypool
4.7
Indeed
4.5
Sitejabber
4.4

Similar Documents