Male Dominant Feminist Analysis

The dominant feminist description for men’s violence towards women is that it is “essential to a system of gender subordination” (MacKinnon, 1989). Feminists argue that sexual violence is a man’s way of preserving male dominance and female subordination, which are fundamental to the patriarchal social order (Stanko 1985). It is argued that a range of sexual violence outlines the everyday lives of women (Kelly, 1988), and similarly Stanko (1985) establishes that the appreciation of physical and sexual security by women is so firmly merged with their concern for sexual integrity as to “render the concept of safety problematic for women” (Stanko, 1985). It is argued that the safety which women do actually have is not used to their advantage and
instead their lives are constituted of stratagems of security. Stanko (1988) critiques some hypothesis of victimization, arguing that the police are blinded to see the many violence that still happens today. It is debated that this is “one of the factors behind the commonly held belief, perpetuated by the media that violence is usually between strangers” (Croall, 2011). However literature contradicts this as it consists of suggestions that the majority of abuse may happen among those who know each other. In addition, literature identifies the standard of living of the ‘victim’ is an essential feature for them being targeted, however entirely disregards how women are repeatedly “…victimized by those they already know” (Hindelang et al. 1978)