Beyond male’s perceived hierarchical status in society, is male’s physical dominance over females. I feel that this plays a major role when addressing equality among the sexes. Males tend to pursue want they want initially through diplomatic means but if they fail, they resort to force. This can be applied to the workforce but moreover it is most relevant on social and domestic fronts. Some of the major issues discussed by Patricia Smith in “Four Themes in Feminist Legal Theory” are rape and sexual harassment. Smith argues that laws on rape and sexual harassment are just as ineffective as they were in the 1950’s, when these crimes were considered subordinate. She argues that laws protecting people against rape and sexual harassment are vague and do not directly address specific elements of these crimes. She argues, for example, an employer could attempt to extort sex from one of his/her employees on the basis of promotion or job security. Furthermore, Smith asserts the laws ineffectiveness to deter these sex crimes. I disagree with Smith on this claim. I believe that deterrence from committing sex crimes such as rape and sexual harassment are greater than ever. With growing attention and public concern regarding people’s safety and rights, courts, laws, and administrative forces have cracked down on sex crimes. For example, schools have adopted a “No Tolerance” policy on rape and sexual harassment. You will be expelled from Penn State for rape and possibly sexual harassment, among other potential legal consequences. The point is feminists may be underestimating social changes and its effect on subverting a male favored society.
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The fact of the matter remains that these crimes are still occurring. I agree that constantly, legislation is promoting more and more laws that help to negate the frequency of sex crimes, such as the Clery Act, which requires University campuses to report their annual sex crime statistics to the United States Department of Education, so as to better analyze the situation, and in turn, approach even more strategies for eliminating the problem. This being said, I feel Smith's point is not so much the law is ineffective always, and nothing can be done, but that there needs to be an ever evolving legal system that comes up with more laws to combat the problem, and that perfection has not yet been achieved.
ReplyDeleteI agree that deterrence is great because it reduces the amount of people being raped or harassed because people are afraid to go to jail, however it is not enough. There needs to be preventative action to stop the crimes from occurring.
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