Gendered Analysis

• The first gendered aspect of the cases deal with the most obvious.  Both of the victims in the two cases were women.  According to Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, “90% of rape victims or sexual assault victims are women” (6).  It is important to note, however, that male victims are less likely to report their assaults. Still, women make up the majority of sexual violence victims. On the other hand, women make up a smaller portion of the perpetrators of sexual violence.  Approximately “2% of women are offenders of sexual violence” (7).  Additionally, “the majority of sexual violence against females involved someone the victim knew” (6). “In 2005-10, 78% of sexual violence involved an offender who was a family member, intimate partner, friend, or acquaintance” (6).
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• The second gendered aspect deals with male privilege and masculinity.  With regards to male privilege, men are socialized to think that women are for their enjoyment.  They expect to be treated well by women and society just because they are men.  They are also taught to believe that sexual aggression towards women is okay.  In the case of Glen Ridge, the football players had a history of sexually assaulting women and not once faced repercussions (8. pg. 171).  The same type of behavior can be attributed to the man who raped and severely beat the Central Park jogger.  He had a long criminal history of raping women, and was actually serving time for a rape and murder when he confessed to this crime (5).  Additionally, in the Glen Ridge case, the men were upper-middle class white males.  Audre Lorde states that anyone who fulfills the 'mythical norm' embodies success and power (13).  The men in Glen Ridge fulfilled the mythical norm because they were "white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, Christian and financially secure" (13).  Therefore, they posses the power and dominance over women which they proved when they raped the young girl.  In regards to masculinity, men are also socialized to behave in more violent way than women.  In fact, it is expected that men be aggressive.  Being assertive and forceful, or being a ‘man’, is what being masculine is all about. Both male privilege and masculinity are relevant in understanding why there is such a big discrepancy in the ratio of female to male victims, as well as offenders, of sexual violence. 

• The third gendered aspect is that females are usually the focus of rape cases instead of the male perpetrator.  For instance, in the Glen Ridge case, people often asked why the girl went into the basement, where she was raped, in the first place.  In the Central Park jogger case, people asked why she was jogging at night.  This communicates that women need to behave in a way that prevents them from being raped instead of teaching men not to rape.  This “transfers blame from the perpetrator to the victim” (9).  In a male dominated society, men are almost blameless when it comes to rape and only in a small amount of cases are they held accountable for their actions.  “Approximately 1 in 10 (reported) rapes result in time served in prison” (10). The Rape Abuse and Incest National Network also estimated that about “97 percent of rapists (including unreported rapes) will not spend a day in jail” (11). Even though many people have argued that this statistics is entirely too liberal, it does give us a sense of the small amount of accountability men face for committing sexual violence against women. 
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• A final gender aspect that was apparent in both cases also deals with focusing on the victim.  A popular notion about rape deals with questioning whether the woman was actually raped if she shows no physical signs of an assault.  In the case of Glen Ridge, defense attorneys asked the victim if she had any “type of wounds or injuries” or if she was “bleeding after the rape, or [had] any marks” (8. pg. 357, 411).  This seeks to further the idea that “true” rapes are when they are physically “forceful”.  It creates limitations as to what can be defined as a real rape.  In fact, even a Representative in Congress was recently criticized for insinuating all rapes are not rapes.  Todd Atkins, the Republican Representative of Missouri stated that “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down” when asked about pregnancy related to rape (12).  This, of course, also minimizes the psychological trauma that women face as a result of the rape. On the contrary, rarely did people ask if the Central Park jogger was actually raped.  The victim had readily apparent and serious injuries that “corroborated” or “proved” that she was actually raped.  
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Below is a website if anyone needs help dealing with rape, or sexual violence, or just wants to learn more information about it.  I've also included a website with statistics on female victims if anyone is interested in learning just how often women are assaulted.   

RAINN: https://www.rainn.org/
Statistics on female victims of sexual violence: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/fvsv9410.pdf
National Sexual Abuse Hotline: 1-800-656-4673


Created by: Maggie Mendez