Assignment 9 – A “rights-defined identity”
Sally Merry examines the relationship between woman rights, that being woman who have suffered from violence, and the legal system. Merry interviews woman who have experienced domestic violence and who have reached out to the legal system for help and protection against their abusers. Merry suggests that if a woman is suffering from abuse and is rejected by the local officials for help then she is more likely to feel she has no rights and is not worthy of rights- perhaps she many feel she isn’t equal to her abuser. Not only does the legal system opinions matter and affect her thought process, but the society in which she lives in, the people she surrounds herself with can way heavy on her decisions to seek justice. “Thus, an individual’s willingness to take on rights depends on her experience trying to assert them” (347). If people who support her and push her to fight for her rights surround her then she will identify as a person with human rights, equal rights.
Ironically a woman has to fit the descriptions as a “good victim” to receive recognition and protection from the legal system. If a woman fights back or provokes her abusers then she isn’t a “good victim”, they are viewed as troublesome and this can affect their cases. Some of the woman interviewed who had suffered terrible abuse from their spouses didn’t want to punish them, they wanted to make them realize that they were wrong. If a woman just wants recognition of the wrongdoing and then is willing to still be with her abuser is she truly finding her identity and human rights? As stated, “I didn’t want to punish him, just set him straight”(364). If a woman seeks help from the law and then returns to the abuser after, how is the law suppose to maintain protection for her? There are so many factors that go into the rights of woman, social norms in the town of Hilo played heavily on these domestic violence cases. For many years men played a masculine leader role in which he was to keep his wife in check, and if she wasn’t obeying him, then he would use violence to ensure she was doing her part in the household. However there have been many changes to the law because of feminist movements that are advocating for their rights. “A more complex set of penalties for batterers has developed both within and outside the law. Of particular importance is the development of new forms of governance that focus on self-management and a redefinition of masculinity” (379).
